He began hurriedly to scribble notes. When the lunatic skipped
away from him he would walk a few yards in pursuit, stop, and
make notes again. Thus they followed each other round and round
the foolish circle of turf, the one writing in pencil with the
face of a man working out a problem, the other leaping and
playing like a child.
After about three-quarters of an hour of this imbecile scene,
Grant put the pencil in his pocket, but kept the note-book open
in his hand, and walking round the mad professor, planted himself
directly in front of him.
Then occurred something that even those already used to that wild
morning had not anticipated or dreamed. The professor, on finding
Basil in front of him, stared with a blank benignity for a few
seconds, and then drew up his left leg and hung it bent in the
attitude that his sister had described as being the first of all
his antics. And the moment he had done it Basil Grant lifted his
own leg and held it out rigid before him, confronting Chadd with
the flat sole of his boot. The professor dropped his bent leg,
and swinging his weight on to it kicked out the other behind,
like a man swimming. Basil crossed his feet like a saltire cross,
and then flung them apart again, giving a leap into the air. Then
before any of the spectators could say a word or even entertain a
thought about the matter, both of them were dancing a sort of jig
or hornpipe opposite each other; and the sun shone down on two
madmen instead of one.
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