Jupiter laughed. "It was your own ball," he said. "You put too much
muscle into that stroke, and, as a consequence, the ball flew all the
way round the planet and clipped you from behind."
"You don't mean to say--" I began.
"Yes, I do," said Jupiter. "That is a special long-distance driver
made for me. Only had it two days. It is not easy to use, because it
has such wonderful force. Hercules drove a ball three times around the
planet at one stroke with it yesterday. To use it properly requires
judgment. Up here you have to play golf with your head, as well as
with your clubs."
"Well, I played it with mine all right," I put in, rubbing the lump on
the back of my head ruefully. "Shall I play two?"
"Certainly," said Jupiter. "You've a good brassey lie behind the tee
there. Play gently now, for this hole isn't more than three hundred
miles long."
My brassey stroke is one of my best, and I did myself proud. The ball
flew about one hundred and seventy-nine miles in a straight line, but
landed in a sand-bunker. Jupiter followed with a good clean drive for
two hundred miles, breaking all the records previously stated to me by
Adonis, whereupon we entered the skitomobile and were promptly
transported to the edge of the bunker, where my ball reposed upon the
glistening sand. It took three to get out, owing to the height of the
cop, which rose a trifle higher in the air than Mount Blanc, but the
niblick Jason had brought along for my use, as soon as I got used to
the titanic quality of the game I was playing, was finally equal to
the loft. My ball landed just short of the green, one hundred and
sixteen miles away. Jupiter foozled his approach, and we both reached
the edge of the green in four.
"Bully distance for a putt," said Jupiter, taking the line from his
ball to the hole.
"About how far is it?" I asked, for I couldn't see anything
resembling a hole within a mile of me.
"Oh, five miles, I imagine," was the answer. "Put on these glasses and
you'll see the disk."
My courteous host handed me a pair of spectacles which I put upon my
nose, and there, seemingly two inches away, but in reality five and a
quarter miles, was the hole. The glasses were a revelation, but I had
seen too much that was wonderful to express surprise.
"Dead easy," I said, referring to the putt, now that I had the glasses
on.
"Looks so," said Jupiter, "but be careful. You can't hope to putt
until you know your ball."
At the moment I did not understand, but a minute after I had a shock.
Putting perfectly straight, the ball rolled easily along and then made
a slight hitch backward, as if I had put a cut on it, and struck off
ahead, straight as an arrow but to the left of the disk. This it
continued to do in its course, zigzagging more and more out of the
straight line until it finally stopped, quite two and a half miles
from the cup.
"Now watch me," said Jupiter. "You'll get an idea of how the ball
works."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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