Colonel Hawker and Major Barstowe were having an argument in the smoking-room when Hoover and Jones entered.
“I did not say I did not believe you,” said Barstowe, “I said it was strange.”
“Strange,” cried the Colonel, “what do you mean by strange—it’s not the word I object to, it’s the tone you spoke in.”
“What’s the dispute?” asked Hoover.
“Why,” said Barstowe, “the Colonel was telling me he had seen pigs in Burmah sixteen feet long, and sunflowers twenty feet in diameter.”
“Oh, that story,” said Hoover; “yes, there’s nothing strange in that.”
“I’ll knock any man down that doubts my word,” said the Colonel, “that’s flat.”
Hoover laughed, Jones shivered.
Then the disputants went out to play another game of croquet, and Jones, picking up with Smithers, played a game of billiards, Hoover going off and leaving them alone.
After playing for about five minutes, Smithers, who had maintained an uncanny silence, broke off the game.