ge, and sat
cracking his nostrils till the black pony rose.

"That's what you get for interfering. Do you want any more?" said
Benami, and he plunged into the game. Nothing was done that quarter,
because Faiz-Ullah would not gallop, though Macnamara beat him whenever
he could spare a second. The fall of the black pony had impressed his
companions tremendously, and so the Archangels could not profit by
Faiz-Ullah's bad behaviour.

But as The Maltese Cat said when "time" was called, and the four came
back blowing and dripping, Faiz-Ullah ought to have been kicked all
round Umballa. If he did not behave better next time The Maltese Cat
promised to pull out his Arab tail by the roots and--eat it.

There was no time to talk, for the third four were ordered out.

The third quarter of a game is generally the hottest, for each side
thinks that the others must be pumped; and most of the winning play in a
game is made about that time.

Lutyens took over The Maltese Cat with a pat and a hug, for Lutyens
valued him more than anything else in the world; Powell had Shikast, a
little grey rat with no pedigree and no manners outside polo; Macnamara
mounted Bamboo, the largest of the team; and Hughes Who's Who, alias The
Animal. He was supposed to have Australian blood in his veins, but he
looked like a clothes-horse, and you could whack his legs with an iron
crow-bar without hurting him.

They went out to meet the very flower of the Archangels' team; and when
Who's Who saw their elegantly booted legs and their beautiful satin
skins, he grinned a grin through his light, well-worn bridle.

"My word!" said Who's Who. "We must give 'em a little football. These
gentlemen need a rubbing down."

"No biting," said The Maltese Cat, warningly; for once or twice in his
career Who's Who had been known to forget himself in that way.

"Who said anything about biting? I'm not playing tiddly-winks. I'm
playing the game."

The Archangels came down like a wolf on the fold, for they were tired
of football, and they wanted polo. They got it more and more. Just after
the game began, Lutyens hit a ball that was coming towards him rapidly,
and it rolled in the air, as a ball sometimes will, with the whirl of
a frightened partridge. Shikast heard, but could not see it for the
minute, though he looked everywhere and up into the air as The Maltese
Cat had taught him. When he saw it ahead and overhead he went forward
with Powell as fast as he could p