AND OTHER SKETCHES 289 



dinner that evening both anglers were to bare their backs 

 and go outside their tent and lie down on the grass. 

 Smoking was allowed, but the first man to move a hand 

 to brush off a mosquito would lose the bet, the referee 

 being the Colonel's valet. 



At eight o'clock both gentlemen stripped to the waist, 

 and stepping outside the tent lay down side by side, both 

 puffing vigorously at their Havanas. The mosquitoes 

 were there in swarms that night, and the two well-fed 

 backs were a feast they were not slow in alighting upon. 

 Both victims commenced to wriggle and squirm, but the 

 conditions of the match prevented the use of the hands 

 and so no relief was possible from that quarter. The 

 attacks at last became so persistent that the Colonel 

 bej^an to weaken and regretted having badgered his 

 friend into the game. At last the Colonel, unable to stand 

 the pressure, slyly taking his cigar from his lips, gently 

 pressed the lighted end on the Major's back. With a 

 yell that might have been heard acres away the Major 

 jumped to his feet shouting: "Colonel, the bet is off; 

 gallinippers are barred, mosquitoes only were to count. ' ' 

 Both gentlemen returned to the tent, and the valet was 

 kept busy applying a soothing lotion to their backs. 



It was not until the pain of the scars had been relieved 

 that the Colonel admitted the trick he had played. The 

 wine, of course, was supplied by the perpetrator of the 

 joke, and many a laugh was indulged in in after days 

 by the Colonel and his friends over the gallinipper 

 episode. 



