"You are a fanatic, O’Grady," said Parker, "you must have an explanation for everything; there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in your philosophy. I believe, myself, in good luck and bad luck because I have noticed it: I believe in presentiments because I have had them, and events have confirmed them. When I was being sent home, after the Transvaal War, I got an order to embark on a certain ship. Well, two days before it started I suddenly had a presentiment that I must avoid sailing in that ship at all costs. I went sick and waited a fortnight longer. The transport I missed was completely lost and no one ever knew how. Then again, why are you so certain, doctor, that aspirin will cure your headache? Because aspirin has cured it before. Where’s the difference?" "The major is right," said Aurelle. "To say that you do not believe in a man’s bad luck because you cannot find it at his autopsy, is like saying that the tuner has taken the piano to pieces, and therefore Mozart had no soul." The quartermaster, who was dining with them that evening, threw his weight into discussion: "There _are_ things that cannot be explained, doctor. For instance, I hit you in the face: you shut your eye—why?" There was an astounded silence. "Another instance," remarked the padre at last. "Why is it that if there is a pause in the conversation, it is always twenty minutes to, or twenty minutes past, the hour?" "But that’s not true," said the doctor. "It was true this time, anyhow," said Aurelle, looking at his watch. "It may be once or twice," said the doctor irritably, "but it cannot always happen." "All right, doctor, all right," said the padre. "You notice it for several days and I think you will change your mind." The colonel said: "My men tell me that if a shell falls on a dug-out where there are gunners and infantry, the latter are killed and the gunners are spared. Why?" "But it is not true, sir." "And why must one never light three cigarettes with the same match?" "But you may, sir, it does not matter a bit." "Ah, there I disagree with you, doctor," said the colonel. "I am not superstitious, but I would not do that for anything in the world." "Why do people dressed in green always lose at Monte Carlo?" said Aurelle. "But it is not true!" roared the doctor, exasperated. "It is easy to argue like you," said Parker. "Everything you do not agree with is not true." "There are," said the padre, "no creatures so wicked and so dense as English doctors." "Messiou," said the colonel, "are the gunners equally lucky in the French Army?" "I have often remarked it," said Aurelle, who liked Colonel Bramble very much. The colonel therefore triumphed, and tried to put an end to the discussion, which bored him. "I am so very sorry," he said, "I cannot give you the gramophone to-night. I have no more needles." "That _is_ a pity," said the padre.