He accepts the obvious untruth that it has just ended,
smiles with satisfaction, and proposes to the Adjutant a game of one
hundred up.
The Colonel, after examining the cues with marked disapproval,
eventually selects one of short length and pronounced weight. He
then appropriates for his sole personal use the only piece of chalk,
demands the spot ball, places it in position, and endeavours to cast
his opponent's ball into a baulk pocket with a rapid back-hander. The
Adjutant sprints round the table in pursuit.
The Colonel next addresses his own ball and propels it violently
against the red, which, taken completely by surprise, bounds with a
strong resilience from the top cushion, courses twice up and down the
table and comes to a pause in the neighbourhood of the middle pocket.
The Colonel tests the elasticity of the cushion with his thumb and
gives way a foot to enable his opponent to begin a neat break of
twenty-seven.
The Colonel, finding time hanging heavily on his hands, devotes this
period to filling his pipe from a borrowed pouch; he then tramps
determinedly back to the table and is about to pocket the red from
a point of considerable vantage, when the Adjutant deferentially
suggests that he is about to play with the wrong ball.
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