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by M. E. W. Sherwood

What has been said of double-handed games applies equally well to the three-handed and four-handed games, except that in the three-handed game the single player shall serve in every alternate game; in the four-handed game the pair who have the right to serve in the first game may decide which partner shall do so, and the opposing pair may decide similarly for the second game. The partner of the player who served in the first game shall serve in the third, and the partner of the player who served in the second game shall serve in the fourth, and so on. In the same order, in all the subsequent games of a set or series of sets, the players shall take the service alternately throughout each game.

No player shall receive or return a service delivered to his partner; and the order of service and of striking-out once arranged, shall not be altered; nor shall the strikers-out change courts to receive the service before the end of the set. The players change sides at the end of every set. When a series of sets is played, the player who was server in the last game of one set shall be striker-out in the first game of the next.

A Bisque is one stroke which may be claimed by the receiver of the odds at any time during a set, except that a bisque may not be taken after the service has been delivered. The server may not take a bisque after a fault, but the striker-out may do so. One or more bisques may be given in augmentation or diminution of other odds.

Half-fifteen is one stroke given at the beginning of the second and every subsequent alternate game of a set.

Fifteen is one stroke given at the beginning of every game of a set.

Half-thirty is one stroke given at the beginning of the first game, two strokes given at the beginning of the second game, and so on alternately in all the subsequent games of a set.

Thirty is two strokes given at the beginning of every game of a set.

Half-forty is two strokes given at the beginning of the first game, three strokes at the beginning of the second, and so on alternately in all the subsequent games of the set.

Forty is three strokes given at the beginning of every game of a set.

Half-court is when the players having agreed into which court the giver of the odds of half-court shall play, the latter loses a stroke if the ball returned by him drops outside any of the lines which bound that court.