They finished their circuit of the green⁠—“Just in case anybody’s in the ditch,” said Antony⁠—and then sat down on the bench.

“Now then,” said Bill, “we are alone. Fire ahead.”

Antony smoked thoughtfully for a little. Then he took his pipe out of his mouth and turned to his friend.

“Are you prepared to be the complete Watson?” he asked.

“Watson?”

“Do-you-follow-me-Watson; that one. Are you prepared to have quite obvious things explained to you, to ask futile questions, to give me chances of scoring off you, to make brilliant discoveries of your own two or three days after I have made them myself⁠—all that kind of thing? Because it all helps.”