restrain myself.

"Better play safe," I said. "It will cost you only one stroke."

"I think I can take it out," he said, reaching in the bag for a heavy,
old-fashioned lofting iron.

He took one glance at the green, and then came down on that ball as if
he intended to drive it into the bowels of the earth. I saw nothing but
a shower of mud and a huge divot hurled up by the club-head as the
wrists relaxed to save breaking the shaft.

Others saw the ball as it flicked the tips of the menacing grass and
soared high in the air. It struck on the near edge of the green.

"A bonny shot, mon; a guede clean shot as ere were made out thot muck!"
exclaimed Kirkaldy, his face mantled with a grin of frank admiration.

It was a glorious recovery! Miss Lawrence was fairly dancing for joy.
Kirkaldy laid his ball within a foot of the hole, and won it with a
three against four for Wallace, the latter making bogy. Wallace is
unable to explain how he made a fluke of that first shot, and I am sure
I have no idea.

On the second hole both drove perfect balls over the old graveyard, but
Wallace had a shade the best of it in distance and direction. Both were
nicely on the green in two, and Wallace missed a putt for a three by a
hair, while his opponent was lucky, running down in a long lag for four,
halving it in bogy.

Timid players drive short on the third so as to avoid dropping in the
brook, but both drove smashing balls far over it.

"I don't know much about this game," chuckled Harding, overtaking me at
the foot-bridge, "but so far as I can see, this man of Bishop's isn't
exactly what you folks call a duffer."

[Illustration: "It struck on the near edge of the green"]

Both took this hole in bogy fours, and both drove the duck pond on the
next hole, and we found their balls fair on the green, 220 yards away
and slightly up hill. Wallace rimmed the cup for a two, and both made
threes, one stroke better than bogy. It was lightning golf. LaHume's
face was a study.

The fifth hole is 470 yards, and both were within easy chopping
approach of the green on their second. Wallace had the worst of a bad
kick, and Kirkaldy holed a thirty-foot putt for a par four, making him
two up. LaHume smiled once again. The next four holes were made in bogy
by both players, leaving Kirkaldy two up on both medal and match scores.
Here is the out card:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
KIRKALDY-- 3 4 4 3 4 5 5 5 4--37