"Hooray! Myra, your health."
"We're only six, though," added Archie. "Didn't you swim up against anybody else who looked like a cricketer and might play for us?"
"But we can easily pick up five people by Saturday," said Myra confidently. "And oh, I do hope we're in form; we haven't played for years."
. . . . . . .
We lost the toss, and Myra led her team out on to the field. The last five places in the eleven had been filled with care: a preparatory school-boy and his little sister (found by Dahlia on the beach), Miss Debenham (found by Simpson on the road with a punctured bicycle), Mrs Oakley (found by Archie at the station and re-discovered by Myra in the Channel), and Sarah, a jolly girl of sixteen (found by me and Thomas in the tobacconist's, where she was buying The Sportsman).
"Where would you all like to field?" asked the captain.
"Let's stand round in groups, just at the start, and then see where we're wanted. Who's going to bowl?"
"Me and Samuel. I wonder if I dare bowl over-hand."
"I'm going to," said Simpson.
"You can't, not with your left hand."