"How do you know?"
"I saw it losing itself. It went into the bad place I told you about. It"s gone to join the Secretary. Oh, no, we got him out, of course; I keep forgetting. Anyhow, it"s my hole."
"I think I shall turn my trousers up again," said Thomas, bending down to do so. "Is there a local rule about it?"
"No; it is left entirely to the discretion and good taste of the members. Naturally a little extra licence is allowed on a very muddy day. Of course, if--Oh, I see. You meant a local rule about losing your ball in the mud? No, I don"t know of one--unless it comes under the heading of casual land. Be a sportsman, Thomas, and don"t begrudge me the hole."
The game proceeded, and we reached the twelfth tee without any further contretemps; save that I accidentally lost the sixth, ninth and tenth holes, and that Thomas lost his iron at the eighth. He had carelessly laid it down for a moment while he got out of a hole with his niblick, and when he turned round for it the thing was gone.
At the twelfth tee it was raining harder than ever. We pounded along with our coat-collars up and reached the green absolutely wet through.
"How about it?" said Thomas.
"My hole, I think; and that makes us all square."
"I mean how about the rain? And it"s just one o"clock."
"Just as you like. Well, I suppose it is rather wet. All right, let"s have lunch."
We had lunch. Thomas had it in the only dry things he had brought with him--an ulster and a pair of Vardon cuffs, and sat as near the fire as possible. It was still raining in torrents after lunch, and Thomas, who is not what I call keen about golf, preferred to remain before the fire. Perhaps he was right. I raked up an old copy of Strumers with the Niblick for him, and read bits of the Telephone Directory out aloud.
After tea his proper clothes were dry enough in places to put on, and as it was still raining hard, and he seemed disinclined to come out again, I ordered a cab for us both.
"It"s really rotten luck," said Thomas, as we prepared to leave, "that on the one day when I take a holiday, it should be so beastly."
"Beastly, Thomas?" I said in amazement. "The ONE day? I"m afraid you don"t play inland golf much?"
"I hardly ever play round London."
"I thought not. Then let me tell you that to-day"s was the best day"s golf I"ve had for three weeks."
"Golly!" said Thomas.
AN INFORMAL EVENING
DINNER was a very quiet affair. Not a soul drew my chair away from under me as I sat down, and during the meal n.o.body threw bread about. We talked gently of art and politics and things; and when the ladies left there was no b.o.o.by trap waiting for them at the door. In a word, nothing to prepare me for what was to follow.
We strolled leisurely into the drawing-room. A glance told me the worst. The ladies were in a cl.u.s.ter round Miss Power, and Miss Power was on the floor. She got up quickly as we came in.
"We were trying to go underneath the poker," she explained. "Can you do it?"
I waved the poker back.
"Let me see you do it again," I said. "I missed the first part."
"Oh, I can never do it. Bob, you show us."
Bob is an active young fellow. He took the poker, rested the end on the floor, and then twisted himself underneath his right arm. I expected to see him come up inside out, but he looked much the same after it. However, no doubt his organs are all on the wrong side now.
"Yes, that"s how I should do it," I said hastily.
But Miss Power was firm. She gave me the poker. I pressed it hard on the floor, said good-bye to them all, and dived. I got half-way round, and was supporting myself upside down by one toe and the slippery end of the poker, when it suddenly occurred to me that the earth was revolving at an incredible speed on its own axis, and that, in addition, we were hurtling at thousands of miles a minute round the sun. It seemed impossible in these circ.u.mstances that I should keep my balance any longer; and as soon as I realized this, the poker began to slip. I was in no sort of position to do anything about it, and we came down heavily together.
"Oh, what a pity!" said Miss Power. "I quite thought you"d done it."
"Being actually on the spot," I said, "I knew that I hadn"t."
"Do try again."
"Not till the ground"s a little softer."
"Let"s do the jam-pot trick," said another girl.
"I"m not going under a jam-pot for anybody," I murmured.
However, it turned out that this trick was quite different. You place a book (Macaulay"s Essays or what not) on the jam-pot and sit on the book, one heel only touching the ground. In the right hand you have a box of matches, in the left a candle. The jam-pot, of course, is on its side, so that it can roll beneath you. Then you light the candle ... and hand it to anybody who wants to go to bed.
I was ready to give way to the ladies here, but even while I was bowing and saying, "Not at all," I found myself on one of the jam-pots with Bob next to me on another. To balance with the arms outstretched was not so difficult; but as the matches were then about six feet from the candle and there seemed no way of getting them nearer together the solution of the problem was as remote as ever. Three times I brought my hands together, and three times the jam-pot left me.
"Well played, Bob," said somebody. The bounder had done it.
I looked at his jam-pot.
"There you are," I said, ""Raspberry--1909." Mine"s "Gooseberry-1911," a rotten vintage. And look at my book, Alone on the Prairie; and you"ve got The Mormon"s Wedding. No wonder I couldn"t do it."
I refused to try it again as I didn"t think I was being treated fairly; and after Bob and Miss Power had had a race at it, which Bob won, we got on to something else.
"Of course you can pick a pin out of a chair with your teeth?" said Miss Power.
"Not properly," I said. "I always swallow the pin."
"I suppose it doesn"t count if you swallow the pin," said Miss Power thoughtfully.
"I don"t know. I"ve never really thought about that side of it much.
Anyhow, unless you"ve got a whole lot of pins you don"t want, don"t ask me to do it to-night."
Accordingly we pa.s.sed on to the water-trick. I refused at this, but Miss Power went full length on the floor with a gla.s.s of water balanced on her fore-head and came up again without spilling a single drop. Personally, I shouldn"t have minded spilling a single drop; it was the thought of spilling the whole gla.s.s that kept me back. Anyway, it is a useless trick, the need for which never arises in an ordinary career. Picking up The Times with the teeth, while clasping the left ankle with the right hand, is another matter. That might come in useful on occasions; as, for instance, if having lost your left arm on the field and having to staunch with the right hand the flow of blood from a bullet wound in the opposite ankle, you desired to glance through the Financial Supplement while waiting for the ambulance.
"Here"s a nice little trick," broke in Bob, as I was preparing myself in this way for the German invasion.
He had put two chairs together, front to front, and was standing over them--a foot on the floor on each side of them, if that conveys it to you. Then he jumped up, turned round in the air, and came down facing the other way.
"Can YOU do it?" I said to Miss Power.
"Come and try," said Bob to me. "It"s not really difficult."
I went and stood over the chairs. Then I moved them apart and walked over to my hostess.