Barry Pain

“ And then Blake did an astounding thing. With Bartlet's cigarette in his hand, he picked up his own case and, under cover of shutting it, slipped Bartlet's cigarette into it and extracted another Archimedes. It was most clumsily done. I have never seen worse conjuring even in an amateur. I was sorry to see, too, that Bartlet had also spotted it. He watched Blake narrowly as he lit the Archimedes cigarette. ”

“ Then for some days we saw no more of Blake, and had almost forgotten the incident of the cigarette. Then he turned up at dinner at the club, and asked us if we felt positive that Bartlet had seen him change the cigarettes. Maddison and I both felt sure of it.
"I'm sorry, Blake," said Maddison. "It's quite an easy trick, and if you had only given it a little practice, you'd have been all right. As it was, you were clumsy. If that cigarette forms any part of your scheme for scoring off Bartlet——"
"It certainly does," said Blake. ”

“ I doubt if Blake really intended to exterminate Bartlet. But the life of a deposed authority is not pleasant in the club where he originally set up his pedestal. He becomes subject to chaff. So when Bartlet discussed comparative golf-balls and gave his decision, somebody asked him if he had ever tried the Archimedes. When he spoke of his recent acquisition of a signed work of art, people reminded him that the name on a cigarette paper was not necessarily a criterion of the tobacco inside. ”

“ So Bartlet began to back his bill at luncheon and dinner, and then sent in his resignation on the ground that of late the cuisine had gone to the dogs.
But a man who has once been an authority does not easily give up the position. Bartlet has already set up his pedestal in another club, to which I offer my respectful sympathy. ”

“ The longest-living author of this work died in 1928, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 95 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works. ”