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self-control to play that rotten game all the week, merely to prevent our suspecting his identity, beats me entirely. And yet you could find parallel instances; old Lord Mersingham, for example———"

"Do you mean," said Gordon in a shocked voice, "that Brotherhood pulled his drives like that on purpose?"

"Precisely. After all, don't you remember that day, let me see, I think it was last February, when Brotherhood played for fifty pounds, and went round in eighty-nine? Of course, there are flukes even in golf. I remember myself———"

"Well," said Gordon, "I think the Committee ought to do something about it. Dash it all, I was his partner in the foursomes."

"De mortuis," suggested Reeves. "But I still don't see why he wanted to do it, I'm afraid. Why, the thing's been going on for years."

"Well, none of us know much about Brotherhood's business; but I gather from what people are saying about the bankruptcy that it was a pretty shady one. They haven't traced any hole in the accounts; but if there ever was a man you would expect to go bankrupt and then skip (I believe it is called) with what is described in such circumstance as the boodle, that man was Brotherhood. He foresaw the probability of this for years, and made very careful and subtle preparations for meeting the situation. The important thing on such occasions is to have an alter ego. The difficulty is to establish an alter ego on the spur of the