James’s reply was a calculated safety-miss, which only failed of its intention in that it left his ball about an inch away from the middle pocket.  The closeness of the contest may be gauged from the fact that at this stage the game was called (or would have been called if the marker had not gone out to his dinner) at one all.

“In off the white,” declared Herbert, and promptly potted it.  “Sorry,” he added almost before the ball was in the pocket.

[Illustration:  A MASTERLY TEN-SHOT, WHICH COLLECTED ALL THREE BALLS IN THE BOTTOM RIGHT-HAND POCKET.

[The continuous line shows the path of the striker’s ball and the dotted lines those of the object balls.]]

For some time after this episode, which chilled the atmosphere a trifle, the exchanges were uneventful.  A slight tendency towards “barracking” on the part of the crowd was quickly stifled, however, by a brilliant effort from James, who by means of all-round play built up an attractive break of 5.

Herbert at once responded by taking off his coat, but for several innings contributed nothing else of note except a powerful shot which pocketed the red ball in the fireplace.  After an agreement had at last been reached about the rule governing this particular class of stroke, both players settled down to their work and put in some useful breaks, runs of 3, 7 and 4 by James being countered by 2, 5, 6 and 3 (twice) by Herbert.  The latter was the first to reach the 50-mark, an event which the crowd signalised by hanging up their hats and advancing to the table.  When they were informed that the game was one of a hundred up, they seemed disposed to argue the matter, and from this stage their attitude towards the players became openly and impartially critical.

The latter half of the match was marked by a somewhat peculiar incident.  With the game standing at 75 all Herbert made a stroke that left the red hovering on the brink of a pocket.  He waited anxiously, but with no result.  At this point one of the crowd emitted a prodigious yawn, and it was the intense vibration set up from this act, so James declared, that induced the ball to topple over into the pocket.  In support of his contention that no score should ensue he pointed to a framed copy of the Rules of Billiards on the wall that balanced a coloured advertisement of Tommy Dodd whisky, and recited the rule on vibration.  Herbert strenuously denied that any such phenomenon had taken place, and when James appealed to its author he was met with such an outburst of elephantine sarcasm that he refrained from further contesting the point.