by W. W. Jacobs
ENTRY NO. XVIII
MR. HARDING'S STRUGGLE
I won my match with Marshall after a contest which went to the twentiethhole. He had me dormie one coming to the eighteenth, but by perfectplaying I won it in a five and halved the match. Nothing happened on thefirst extra hole, but on the following I held a fifteen putt for a threeand won a beautifully contested match.
Miss Harding went around with us and was my Mascot. I broke my recordfor the course, making a medal score of seventy-eight. Miss Hardingcongratulated me and I was so happy I could have yelled. Dear oldMarshall did not take his defeat the least to heart, but he is notplaying for the stakes that I am.
I have dreamed twice that if I won the Harding Trophy I should wineverything.
Carter beat Boyd handily, and the prize will go to one of us. I mustbeat him; I shall beat him!
After having declared innumerable times that he would master the secretsof golf without aid from anyone, Harding finally surrendered and tookhis first lesson this afternoon.
"I take back everything I ever said about this being an easy game toplay," he said. "I'm a pretty good 'rule of thumb' civil and mechanicalengineer, I know a few things about the laws of resistances and all thatsort of thing, I have watched you fellows hit that ball and have triedto imitate you, but it's no use. Now I'm going to do just what Wallacetells me, and if he can teach me to drive I'll pay him more than anyprofessional ever made in the history of the game."
Harding certainly has had a time of it. For weeks he has laboured with apatience worthy of better results, he has purchased every known varietyand weight of club. He has a larger collection of drivers, brassies,cleeks, mashies, midirons, jiggers, niblicks, putters and other toolsthan Billy Moon, and Moon is a specialist in that direction.
The surrounding woods, the ponds, brooks and swamps contain unnumberedballs which Harding has misdriven. He will not waste one minute lookingfor a ball which gets into difficulty, and since his arrival our ordersto the manufacturers have more than doubled.
One of his ambitions has been to drive a ball across the old mill pond.It is a long carry and beyond probability that he can accomplish it, butI have seen him drive box after box of balls and give them to thecaddies who have recovered them.
Wallace was on hand at the appointed time to give Harding his firstlesson, and we had quite a gallery for our foursome, including MissHarding and Miss Lawrence. Wallace was to play with Harding againstCarter and me, but the chief interest centred in whether Wallace couldeffect any improvement in the playing of his ponderous pupil.
He told Harding to make several practise swings Harding did so andWallace studied them closely.
"A man of your build should play with the left foot advanced," he said."Bend the left knee but keep the other one more nearly rigid. Keep theweight of your body on your heels or you will fall on your ball when youswing through. Do not curve your back like a letter C. Keep the backbonestraight but not rigid. It is the pivot on which your body and shouldersmust turn, and how can it turn true if your vertebrae is bent?"
"I had not thought of that," admitted Harding, making a much betterstroke.
"Unless the back is straight the right shoulder will drop, and that isfatal," cautioned Wallace. "Grip firmly and evenly with the fingers--notthe palms--of both hands, but let the wrists be flexible until theclub-head comes to the ball."
Wallace corrected other errors, and after fifteen minutes of instructionHarding teed a ball and for the first time in his life cleared the lane.He was as delighted as a boy who unexpectedly comes into possession ofhis first gun.
"Wallace," he declared, "if you will stick to me until I get so I can dothat well half of the time I'll give you a hundred shares of the L.M. &K. and a job which beats this one all hollow."
"I think you will be able to do even better than that," said Wallaceconfidently.
As the game progressed Harding's play steadily improved and his facetook on an expression of supreme satisfaction delightful to contemplate.
His crowning triumph came on the thirteenth hole, in which he drove thegreen and found his ball laying within a foot of the cup, from whichdistance he easily negotiated a two which won the hole, and, as itsubsequently developed, the match, Wallace holding the best ball ofCarter and myself even.
Harding made the round in 106, which is ten strokes better than any ofhis previous records. He tried in vain to induce Wallace to take somelarge sum of money, but this strange young Scotchman positively refusedto accept more than the regular rate for a lesson.
LaHume left, bag and baggage, early this morning, and I doubt ifWoodvale will see him again. His membership is for sale, and at aspecial meeting of the board his resignation was accepted. He seems tohave been the villain of this diary, but really he is not a bad sort offellow, save for a strain of tactless selfishness. I presume that hisgood looks eventually will win for him some unfortunate heiress.
Had he remained here until this evening he would have been treated toanother surprise. Wallace took Miss Lawrence's high-powered automobilefrom the garage, and, after a preliminary run of several miles in whichto become familiar with certain new devices, swung it around the clubhouse and up to the landing steps with the easy skill in which hehandles a mashie.
As Bishop says, he certainly is "a most remarkable hired man."
Miss Lawrence, Miss Ross and Miss Dangerfield soon appeared and, withWallace, started on a trip which was to include a call at Bishops, andlater a spin down the old post road and back by some circuitous route.
It is only a week from to-day until the meeting of the directors of theN.O. & G. I shall then know whether I am to be comparatively a financialnonentity or a man of affairs. And then I shall know something of vastlymore importance!
