"I wonder what sort of a hell it would be, going round and round on endless rounds of golf--with a real Colonel Bogey sitting on the stile and watching. . . . But I make no promises, no offers, just now. "He tells me that at the Club House he found a Golf Major of sorts--or, as he puts it, 'a compatriot, a military gentleman, retired, with a remarkable knowledge of India'--and seduced him into playing a round. I should gather that Farrell plays an indifferent game. At all events, the Golf Major was averse from a second round, and retiring to a table in the Club veranda allowed Farrell to call for--catch hold of your French, Roddy-- '_Deux bieres, complet_.' The waiter understood it to mean liquid refreshment and not a double funeral. . . . Over the drink the Golf Major, who had known Biarritz for twenty years, explained the difference between its old and its new golf-course, and informed Farrell that in the old one there had used to be the most sporting hole anywhere--for a beginner. You drove slap across a chasm of the sea: if you didn't land your ball neatly you were in the devil of a hole, and if you foozled you saw your ball dropping down, down, to the beach and the Atlantic. 'Too expensive for duffers altogether, especially when the price of balls rose. Only the caddies thrived on it, at the risk of their necks. . . . After this tiffin we'll stroll over and have a look at it.' "So thither they strolled, and by and by started to amuse themselves with pot-shot drives from the old tee. The Major whacked his ball across to a neat lie time after time. Farrell muffed and foozled, wasting his substance in riotous slogging. The height of the cliff, maybe, dizzied his head. "In this way I suppose he expended all his ammunition. At any rate there came a pause, and a small Basque boy in a blue _beret_ began to descend the slope very cautiously, searching for lost balls in the scree. At the foot of the gully, where it funnelled to a sheer drop, I stepped from under my shelter and met the youngster, holding out a golf-ball. 'Here is one more,' said I--'Where are the two gentlemen gone?' He told me that they had gone back to the Club House. 'Then here is a franc for you,' said I, 'and here is a card which you will take with the ball and my compliments to the gentleman who cannot play golf so well as the other gentleman.' "The lad grinned. We climbed the cliff together, and I saw him speed off to the Club House." "I had thus left two cards on Farrell, and it was now his turn to call: which he duly did, and next day; not, however, at the Grand Hotel, but at a far more romantic place of entertainment.