John Henry Smith Part 19

Chilvers, Pepper, and Thomas also qualified, but the cup should lie among the first five.

Candour compels me to admit that on form it should come to a struggle between Carter and Marshall; but if I get into the finals with either of these gentlemen I shall play with confidence of winning.

A most astounding thing has happened! If I were incorporating these events in a narrative or a novel I presume I would reserve the statement I am about to make until the finish, so as to form an effective climax--and on reflection I have decided to do so in these notes. So I will begin at the beginning.

The second day after our visit to Bishop's, Miss Lawrence called me aside on the veranda, and I could see that some great secret had possession of her.

"I wish to ask a favour of you, Mr. Smith," she said, after beating about the brush for a minute.

"Anything at my command is yours," I said.

"I have come to you," she said, "because I know that you are one of the members of the club who can keep a secret. Not that this is any tremendous affair," she added, a blush faintly touching her cheek, "but I don't care to have everybody know it."

I a.s.sured her that wild horses could not drag from me any confidence reposed.

"I want to borrow some of your clubs," she faltered.

"My clubs?"

"Yes; some old ones which you do not use regularly."

"You may have any or all the clubs I have," I a.s.sured her. "When do you wish them?"

"Right now."

She was silent a moment, and I was too mystified to frame any comment.

"I am going to tell you all about it," she impulsively declared, laying her little hand on my arm. "I want them for Mr. Wallace!"

"Mr. Wallace?" I repeated. At that instant I could not think whom she meant.

"Mr. Bishop's a.s.sistant."

"Oh, yes!" I exclaimed. By a mighty effort I kept from smiling. It was the first time I had heard a "hired man" called an "a.s.sistant," and I have heard them called many names.

"Do you remember that at the dinner I said Mr. Wallace had promised to teach me the St. Andrews swing?" she asked, her eyes bright with excitement.

"Yes."

"I took my first lesson yesterday afternoon. Miss Ross and I went over to Mr. Bishop's after dinner, as we arranged we should during the dance.

We put our clubs in my auto when no one was looking, and went by a roundabout way to the big sheep pasture to the east of the farmhouse. Do you know where it is?"

"Perfectly."

"It was still half an hour from sunset, and Mr. Wallace was there waiting for us. Mr. Smith," clasping her hands, "you should see that gentleman play golf!"

"I had an idea he could play from the moment he lofted your sliced ball over the fence that afternoon," I said.

"Can you go with us?" she asked suddenly. "Miss Ross and I promised Mr.

Wallace we would come over this afternoon an I bring a set of men's clubs with us, and it would be just splendid for you to go with us. Will you go, Mr. Smith?"

I a.s.sured her it would be a pleasure. At that moment Miss Harding appeared, and we quickly decided to let her into the secret.

"Mr. Wallace said he would arrange with Mr. Bishop to get away from his work an hour or so any time we came over this afternoon," explained Miss Lawrence, "so there will be no deception on his part."

"Oh, you should see him drive!" exclaimed Miss Ross, raising her eyes as if following a ball which was travelling an enormous distance. "And he did not dare hit them hard for fear of breaking my club. It was perfectly lovely!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: "We ran the auto into the sheep pasture"]

"And approach!" added Miss Lawrence.

"And putt!" declared Miss Ross. "It was grand!"

"Let us see this paragon of all the golfing virtues without delay,"

laughed Miss Harding, and half an hour later our automobile stopped in front of the Bishop house.

Wallace must have been on the outlook for us, since he appeared directly. He seemed a bit surprised to see me, but greeted us pleasantly.

"Miss Lawrence and Miss Ross were so kind as to praise shots I made yesterday," he explained, "but, as Mr. Smith will understand, the good ones were more or less lucky, for it is long since I have had a club in my hand. However, I will do the best I can to ill.u.s.trate the typical Scottish swings, as I execute them, but please do not expect too much."

We ran the auto into the sheep pasture, and I presume it was the first invasion of those haunts by this modern vehicle. At least the sheep seemed to so regard it, and ran bleating in every direction. It is an ideal spot for an exhibition of the long game, and Bishop has had many offers from golf clubs seeking a location for links. That farmer gentleman appeared shortly after we arrived at the crest of a gentle hill.

"No trespa.s.sin' on these here premises!" he grinned.

"How are ye, everybody? Miss Lawrence tells me that my man Wallace, here, is a crackerjack drivin' one of them golf b.a.l.l.s. You'd ought to see him drive a team when he first come here. Took him two weeks to learn the difference between 'gee' and 'haw,' and to tell the 'nigh'

from the 'off' boss, but I suppose drivin' a golf ball is a sight easier. But I won't bother ye. I'll just stand here and watch. Perhaps I might learn somethin'."

It was a warm afternoon and Wallace laid aside his thin jacket. He was dressed in a tennis suit which fitted him perfectly. Bishop called me aside.

"That chap has two or three trunks full of all kinds of clothes," he said in a whisper, "but this is the first time I ever saw this one. What do you call it?"

"That's a tennis suit," I said.

"Tennis!" he grunted. "That's worse than golf, isn't it, Jack?"

I laughed, and then we turned our attention to the young Scotchman.

The moment he grasped my driver and swung it with an easy but powerful wrist movement I knew he was an expert. You can almost pick the good golfer by the way he takes a club from a bag. His skill is shown in his manner of teeing a ball, and no duffer ever "addressed" the sphere or "waggled" his club so as to deceive those who know the game.

Wallace did not tee the ball on any raised inequality of the turf, but simply placed it on a smooth spot, such as one would select as the average bra.s.sie lie. If I had any lingering doubt as to his ability, this one preliminary act dispelled it.

Now that I calmly recall this scene in that sheep pasture, its dramatic grotesqueness rather appeals to me. Here were three young ladies, all of them pretty, all wealthy and holding high social positions, watching with bated breath a farmhand of unknown birth in the act of striking a golf ball. Surely golf is the great leveller! Perhaps it is the hope of the ultimate democracy; the germ of the ideal brotherhood of man.

I presume Bishop was thinking that Wallace would better be employed in running a mowing machine.

"The Scotch method of making a full drive," said Wallace, facing his interested little audience, and speaking with more enthusiasm than was his wont, "or, if you prefer it, the St. Andrews style, is distinguished from most types by what might be termed its exaggerated freedom. It is a full, free swing with an abandoned follow through. It probably comes from the confidence which has been handed down from generations of golf-playing people. The Scotch are a conservative and deliberate people in most things, but the way they seem to hit a golf ball gives to most observers the impression of carelessness and lack of considered effort.

That, I should say," he concluded, with a droll smile, "is enough for the preacher."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "I have never seen a more perfect shot"]