with its tricky seventh move, at least
so he intended, but it turned to a variation unknown to the students
of Stavlokratz.

Throughout this game I watched the sailors closely, and I became sure,
as only an attentive watcher can be, that the one on their left, Jim
Bunion, did not even know the moves.

When I had made up my mind about this I watched only the other two,
Adam Bailey and Bill Sloggs, trying to make out which was the master
mind; and for a long while I could not. And then I heard Adam Bailey
mutter six words, the only words I heard throughout the game, of all
their consultations, "No, him with the horse's head." And I decided
that Adam Bailey did not know what a knight was, though of course he
might have been explaining things to Bill Sloggs, but it did not sound
like that; so that left Bill Sloggs. I watched Bill Sloggs after that
with a certain wonder; he was no more intellectual than the others to
look at, though rather more forceful perhaps. Poor old Stavlokratz was
beaten again.

Well, in the end I paid for Stavlokratz, and tried to get a game with
Bill Sloggs alone, but this he would not agree to, it must be all
three or none: and then I went back with Stavlokratz to his lodgings.
He very kindly gave me a game: of course it did not last long but I am
prouder of having been beaten by Stavlokratz than of any game that I
have ever won. And then we talked for an hour about the sailors, and
neither of us could make head or tail of them. I told him what I had
noticed about Jim Bunion and Adam Bailey, and he agreed with me that
Bill Sloggs was the man, though as to how he had come by that gambit
or that variation of Stavlokratz's own opening he had no theory.

I had the sailors' address which was that tavern as much as anywhere,
and they were to be there all evening. As evening drew in I went back
to the tavern, and found there still the three sailors. And I offered
Bill Sloggs two pounds for a game with him alone and he refused, but
in the end he played me for a drink. And then I found that he had not
heard of the "en passant" rule, and believed that the fact of checking
the king prevented him from castling, and did not know that a player
can have two or more queens on the board at the same time if he queens
his pawns, or that a pawn could ever become a knight; and he made as
many of the stock mistakes as he had time for in a short game, which I
won. I thought that I should have got at the secret then,