“Well, it is. Now listen and I’ll explain, and then we’ll go indoors. ‘To hang a person with a word,’ is the name of the game. You take any word you like in your mind and simply mention the number of letters it has. The other party has to guess, by letters, without making twelve misses. If she fails to guess without twelve wrong guesses, she is hung as I was. That doesn’t seem very clear to you, I suppose.”
“Well, not exactly.”
“I’ll take a word and show you. Now, General, I did not mean to give you your battle now. But you may have it if you’re ready.”
“Steady, fire.”
“All right.” Then she whispered to me the word “Eyelet.”
“Well, I’ll hang you, General Bolton, with a word of six letters.”
“Bah, that’s easy. First, I’ll guess L.”
“Right. It has fourth place.” Then she explained to me, “You have to tell the position of the letter.”
“M.”
“Wrong. That’s one. You help me keep count, Trudy. Remember, twelve wrong guesses and I’ve hung him.”