He dug his stakes into the ground in a V-shaped formation just beyond the place where the road ended and almost opposite the first cottage.  Further north he posted his canvas bags, which he fixed at a convenient height above the ground by depending them from the necks of his subordinates.  He then rigged his rope around the stakes in such a way that the runners, entering the wide end of the V, would be shepherded one by one through a narrow aperture at the bottom, thus avoiding all suspicion of overcrowding in giving out the tickets.  He explained his plan of campaign to his party and took up his post at the foot of the V.

Scarcely had he done so when the A.P. appeared upon the scene.  He had brought with him a few friends—­a couple of subs, two or three senior snotties and the Captain’s secretary, a brace of stewards with the luncheon baskets, and the cutter’s crew, who carried between them two large trellis-work screens which the carpenter had knocked up for him.

He passed the time of day with the gunner, marched fifty yards further down towards the starting-point and had his screens deposited in the middle of the road, in such a way that several could enter one end of the enclosure they formed, but only one at a time could go out at the other; this, he explained, would enable the men to pass the winning-post in single file.  He then lit a cigarette and took his stand at the narrow end, producing from his pocket seven hundred and fifty neat red tickets (numbered from one to seven hundred and fifty) which the chief writer had made out for him the night before.

At 8.45 Number One arrived.  To help him he had brought a couple of watch-keepers, a surgeon, three engineers, a naval instructor and the captain of Marines.  He only paused to borrow one side of the gunner’s V and all but forty of the A.P.’s tickets, and passed on down the road.  When he had reached a suitable point about a hundred yards south of the A.P. he had the purloined rope stretched slantwise, in such a way that the only means of passing it was a little passage a yard wide between the rope and the ditch on the right of the road.  A little nearer still to the starting-point he had a large placard erected with the words “Keep to the Right” painted on it.

Punctually at 9.0 the Commander arrived with a piece of string and the P.M.O.  They took up their stand one on each side of the road opposite the placard.  The Bloke produced a small gold pencil, but, as he had forgotten to bring any paper, he commandeered the placard and began feverishly to write down all the numbers he could think of from one to six hundred and fifty.

You are no doubt anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Owner at 9.15.  Well, I’m afraid I must disappoint you.  Still, although he did not come in person, yet he made his presence felt, as every good skipper should.  At 9.15, as the ship’s company were lining up for the start by the semaphore, he made the signal from the ship:—­