precision, but more buoyancy and verve than be put into his run now as a rule. And the Swiller's shaven face broke into a good-humoured grin as the ball went thud into the wicket-keeper's gloves; it had beaten him completely; the next one he played; off the third he scored a brisk single; and this brought Charles Cave to the striker's crease, with the air of the player who need never have got out in the first innings, and had half a mind not to do it again.
Curious to find that even in those comparatively recent days there were only four balls to the over in an ordinary two-day match; but such was the case, according to the bound volume consulted on the point; and the fourth and last ball of Jan's first over in a memorable innings has a long line to itself an the report. It appears to have been his own old patent, irreproachable in length, but pitching well outside the off-stump, and whipping in like lightning. It sent Charles Cave's leg-bail flying over thirty yards, if we are to believe contemporary measurements. But the reporter refrains from stating that Jan had given the peak of his cap a special tweak, though the fact was not lost upon him at the time.
"Bowled, sir, bowled indeed!" roared Chips from the tent. "I knew it'd be a trimmer; didn't you fellows see how he pulled down his cap?"
And the now really great Charles Cave stalked back to the pavilion with the nonchalant dignity of a Greek statue put into flannels and animated with the best old English blood. But at the pavilion chains he had a word to say to the next batsman, already emerging with indecent haste.
The next batsman was one of the bronzed brigade who could not grace the old ground every season. This one had been in the Eleven two years in his time,
