Doctor says entire hand may have to come off.' Now that is
conversation of a very high order. But imagine walking into a tennis
club with the remark: 'I know a man who has grown a potato weighing two
and a quarter pounds.'"
"But hang it all, my dear fellow," said Blenkinthrope impatiently,
"haven't I just told you that nothing of a remarkable nature ever happens
to me?"
"Invent something," said Gorworth. Since winning a prize for excellence
in Scriptural knowledge at a preparatory school he had felt licensed to
be a little more unscrupulous than the circle he moved in. Much might
surely be excused to one who in early life could give a list of seventeen
trees mentioned in the Old Testament.
"What sort of thing?" asked Blenkinthrope, somewhat snappishly.
"A snake got into your hen-run yesterday morning and killed six out of
seven pullets, first mesmerising them with its eyes and then biting them
as they stood helpless. The seventh pullet was one of that French sort,
with feathers all over its eyes, so it escaped the mesmeric snare, and
just flew at what it could see of the snake and pecked it to pieces."
"Thank you," said Blenkinthrope stiffly; "it's a very clever invention.
If such a thing had really happened in my poultry-run I admit I should
have been proud and interested to tell people about it. But I'd rather
stick to fact, even if it is plain fact." All the same his mind dwelt
wistfully on the story of the Seventh Pullet.
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