"Me!" cried Mr. Gollop. "Me to play-act! Whoever heard the like?"
"You must play, Thomas," urged Vivian Baskerville of Cadworthy. "Such a voice can't be lost. What a King of Egypt the man will make!"
"I'll do a part if you will, but not else," returned Gollop, and the Baskerville family lifted a laugh at their father's expense.
"For that matter I've took the stage often enough," admitted Vivian; "but 'twas to work, not to talk. All the same, if his reverence would like for me to play a part, why, I'm ready and willing, so long as there isn't much to say to it."
"Hurrah for Mr. Baskerville!" shouted several present.
"And Mr. Nathan must play, too," declared Joe Voysey. "No revel would be complete without him."
"If you'll listen I'll tell you what I think," said the clergyman. "I've considered your parts during the last five minutes, and they go like this in my mind. Let's take them in order:—
"St. George, Mr. Ned Baskerville. Will you do St. George, Ned?"
"Yes, if you can't find a better," said the young man.
"Good! Now the Turkish knight comes next. He must be young and a bit of a fighter. Will you be Turkish knight, Mr. Waite?"