'Sir, suppose they can't get us all out?'
'That's when you have to declare, dear. Make sure you judge it so that there's time to put them in again, bowl them out and then pass their total before stumps. We don't want a draw.'
'When are stumps?'
'Narborough's Mr Cartwright and I agreed on seven o'clock. I'll have to ring the school and check with the headmaster. You'll be late for bed of course, but it'll all be the most super-duper fun.'
The whole school turned out to watch after lunch. As Adrian had feared, Narborough's leg-spinner, Ellis, completely baffled his boys. Once they had got used to the ball bouncing and spinning one way, he would send down top-spin and undetectable googlies that made the ball fly off to the waiting close field. Chartham was all out for thirty-nine after an hour and a half of tortured embarrassment. Hugo looked very smug as Narbor-ough prepared for their second innings.
'We're only twenty-five ahead,' said Adrian.
'That's all right, isn't it, sir?' said Rudder. 'If we get them out for fourteen again we'll have won by an innings and eleven runs.'
'If.'
The Narborough openers stalked to the wicket looking determined and confident. They were playing in front of their home crowd now and had experienced the satisfaction of seeing the Chartham team writhe.
Rudder's first ball was a wide. Adrian signalled it, with raised eyebrows.
'Sorry, sir,' said Rudder with a grin.
His next ball was driven to the mid-off boundary, the next was hooked for six. The fourth, a no-ball, was late- cut for two which became six after four overthrows had been added. The next two were both glanced for four. Rudder turned to Adrian to collect his sweater.
'Two more balls yet, Simon.'
'Sir?'
'There was a wide and a no-ball in there. Two more balls.'
'Oh. Yes, sir. I forgot.'
The next two were each smacked for four over Rudder's head.
'What's going wrong, sir?'
'What's going wrong is you're not bowling properly. Line and length, darling, line and length.'
For the next two hours the opening pair batted freely and fiercely, putting on a hundred and seventy-four, until one of the batsmen, the same man Rudder had clean bowled first ball of the morning, retired to let some of his friends enjoy the slaughter.
Hugo's merriment was unbearable over tea, for all the whiteness of his teeth and the sparkle in his eyes.
'Well that's a bit more like it,' he said. 'I was beginning to get worried this morning.'
'Dear old friend of my youth,' said Adrian, 'I'm afraid you've discovered our principal weakness.'
'What, you can't bowl you mean?'
'No, no. Sympathy. My boys were simply devastated by your glumness at lunch, so we decided to cheer you up by letting you have some batting practice. I take it you're declaring over tea?'
'You bet. Have you out of here, tail between your legs, by half past five.'
'Is that a promise?' said a voice behind them. It was Professor Trefusis.
'Certainly, sir,' said Hugo.
'What do you think, Mr Healey?'
'Well let me see . . . two hundred and thirty-nine to make before seven. I think we can do it all right, if we don't panic'
'Ellis isn't tired, you know,' said Hugo. 'He can bowl for hours at a stretch.'
'My boys were beginning to read him by the end,' said Adrian. 'We can do it.'
'I have just placed a bet with my nephew Philip,' said Trefusis. 'Two hundred pounds on Chartham to win at odds of five to one against.'
'What?' said Adrian. 'I mean . . . what?'
'I liked your entrance papers, most amusing. I don't see how you can fail.'
'Well,' said Hugo, as Trefusis ambled away, 'what a bloody idiot.'
'Oh, I don't know,' said Adrian, popping a sandwich into his mouth, 'smart investment if you ask me. Now, if you'll forgive me, I have to go and brief my platoon.'
'Want a side bet?' Hugo called out after him.
'Right,' said Adrian to his team. 'There's a man out there who is so sure, based on the evidence of what he's seen, that you can do it, that he has bet two hundred pounds that you will blow these bastards out of the water.'
They were padding up in the pavilion, forlorn but brave, like Christians preparing for an away match against Lions.
'But what do we do about Ellis, sir!' said Hooper. 'He's impossible.'
