Page:The Monkey's Paw.djvu/10

8

(moving at last, and triumphant). There, Herbert, my boy I Got you, I think.

. Oh, you're a deep 'un, dad, aren't you?

. Mean to say he's beaten you at last?

. Lor, no! Why, he's overlooked——

(very excited). I see it I Lemme have that back! . Not much. Rules of the game! (disgusted). I don't hold with them scientific rules. You turn what ought to be an innocent relaxation——

. Don't talk so much, father. You put him off—— (laughing). Not he! (trying to distract his attention). Hark at the wind.

(drily). Ah! I'm listening. Check.

(still trying to distract him). I should hardly think Sergeant-Major Morris'd come to-night.

. Mate. (Rises, goes up ) (with an outbreak of disgust and sweeping the chessmen off the board). That's the worst of living so far out. Your friends can't come for a quiet chat, and you addle your brains over a confounded——

. Now, father! Morris'll turn up all right. (still in a temper). Lovers' Lane, Fulham! Ho! of all the beastly, slushy, out-o'-the-way places to live in——! Pathway's a bog, and the road's a torrent. (To, who has risen, and is at his side.) What's the County Council thinking of, that's what I want to know? Because this is the