"That's a niblick. You can hardly drive with a niblick."
"Why not? Is it an essential condition of the game that you should play
a certain stroke with a particular club?"
"Not that I'm aware of. Still, I cannot but think that you will hardly
do yourself justice if you drive with a niblick. If you are in search
of a little variety why not drive with a putter? These are the clubs
with which one generally drives."
He gripped half a dozen clubs, all of them more or less like the one
with which I had played my first shot.
"But they are so long--and so unwieldy."
"That you should be of that opinion is unfortunate. Still, one
generally drives with them. However, as you please. Drive with what you
jolly well like. Only drive. Not only is lunch at two, but we are still
blocking the course."
As it happened, two other men had come up, with their caddies. One of
them said,--
"If you gentlemen are not in a hurry perhaps you won't mind our going
on."
"Not in the least. Time is of no object to us. We are here for the day.
You will probably find us still here when you come round again, should
you propose to do a second round. Go on, please."
While they went on I examined the clubs which Hollis had suggested;
finally deciding on one, though it was not at all to my taste.
"Mind you, this is much too long for me."
"It does not look as if it were the kind of club to which you're
accustomed. Perhaps you would prefer a hockey-stick. Should I send for
one while we're waiting?"
"I thought," growled Pickard, "that we'd come here to play golf."
With that I let fly. I did not propose to wait for the repetition of
such an insinuation as that; emanating, moreover, from a complete
stranger. I did not pause to consider, to take aim, for anything.
Scarcely were the words out of that unmannerly Scotchman's lips than I
made my stroke. Owing, no doubt, to the haste to which I was impelled,
I hit nothing but the vacant air, though I had used such force that I
myself almost tumbled to the ground.
"That would have been a good shot," commented Hollis, "if you had hit
the ball. It's a pity you missed it. Have another go."
I immediately repeated my stroke, hardly giving myself time to recover
my equilibrium. Not at all to my surprise, in view of the excessive
length of the club, I struck the end of it against the earth so
violently as to break it clean in two, to say nothing of the jarring
sensation which went right up to my shoulder.
"You hit something that time," murmured Hollis, "though it wasn't the
ball. Have another club. There are plenty more where that came from."
I took another club from that impudent lad. I was hot--more, I was
indignant. It galled me to be compelled to suspect that it could be
possible that I was providing unintentional amusement for a number of
persons, not one of whom, under ordinary circumstances, I should have
thought worthy of my serious attention. Again I made my stroke. And
this time I not only hit the ball, but, in consequence, I presume, of
the almost frenzy with which I was actuated, the club itself slipped
from my hand, and went careering through the air.
"You hit the ball that time," admitted Hollis. "But--you are a
remarkable golfer, Short, and it's an extraordinary fact that your club
should have gone farther than the ball."
"We'll give you this match, Hollis," growled Mr Pickard, with an air
which I could only call uncouth. "I'm off."
"My good Pickard, we'll give it you. Or--should we postpone it to a day
on which we can all get up early, say at sunrise, so that we can have
the whole day before us, and the links to ourselves?"
"No thank you, I've had enough."
"I am sorry, gentlemen," I observed, "if I have spoilt your game."
No statement, as coming from me, could have been handsomer, bearing in
mind that I was the principal sufferer. But Mr Pickard was incapable of
saying anything handsome.
"I didn't know we'd had a game."
"Come, Pickard," suggested the vacuous Barstow, "it hasn't been so bad
as that. I've enjoyed it--as far as it's gone, thanks to Mr Short. I'm
sorry, Mr Short, that I'm not staying down here long enough to enable
us to finish it."
I said nothing. I was not disposed to cross swords in what he might
imagine to be a duel of repartee with a man like Barstow. The two men
marched off with their caddies without another word. I walked off with
Hollis.
Seldom have I had a more disagreeable walk than that was. Not that, so
far as Hollis was concerned, it lasted for any considerable distance;
though it was longer than I desired. In the course of a very few
minutes he showed me the kind of man he was; and, in so doing, revealed
a side of his character of whose existence I had not even dreamed.
Scarcely had we left the golf links behind than he remarked--until that
moment he had not uttered a single word, nor had I,--
"If you're going by the 12.48 I'll see you off."
"Twelve-forty-eight!" I cried. "I thought you said that lunch was at
two."
"I had forgotten that I have an engagement for lunch with a man which I
shall be compelled to keep. You needn't stay. There's nothing here but
golf."
He looked at me in a manner which I resented with every fibre of my
being.
"Allow me to remind you, Hollis, that I came here at your express
invitation, on the understanding that you were to teach me golf."
"Did you? I'm sorry. I shall be happy to refund any expenses to which
you have been put. But, if you take my strong advice, after your
exhibition of this morning you will not stay here any longer than you
can help. You might not find it agreeable. As I say, if you are going
by the 12.48 I will see you off."
"Will you? I am obliged. You needn't. Nor need you come with me another
step. Indeed, I would rather you did not. I will wish you good-morning
here--and good-bye."
"Good-bye," he echoed.
Without uttering another syllable he swung round on his heels and
strode back towards the golf-links, leaving me to pursue my way alone.
My sensations I will not attempt to depict. What a discovery I had
made! What a character had been revealed, as it were, by a flash of
lightning! I had regarded this man as an acquaintance, almost as a
friend, and yet had never known him till that moment.
I did not travel by the 12.48. I went up by the afternoon train to
town. I lunched alone; and, in that place, could not have had better
society. I am of a buoyant disposition. By the time I reached London I
had, practically, wiped the whole regrettable incident off the tablets
of my mind. And I had arrived at a decision. I had resolved to hire a
field, or an open piece of ground, and engage the services of an expert
golf player, a professional, to coach me in the rudiments of the game.
And the next time I play a foursome I will undertake to surprise
certain persons whose names I do not care to mention.