A Shot In The Dark (Supplementary)

Unit 2 – Supplementary Reader

A Shot in the Dark

by Saki

Warm-up

Can you spot 10 differences between these pictures?
How observant are you? Individually, try to spot as many differences as possible in five minutes. If you have spotted less than five, then you really need to improve your observation skill just to save yourself from being misled.

Characters in the Story

• Philip Sletherby – a man who aspires to become a politician
• Mrs. Saltpen-Jago – a rich and influential lady of high rank
• Bertie – son of Mrs. Saltpen-Jago
• Claude People K.C. – a friend of Sletherby

Story

Philip Sletherby settled himself down in an almost empty railway carriage, with the pleasant consciousness of being embarked on an agreeable and profitable pilgrimage. He was bound for Brill Manor, the country residence of his newly achieved acquaintance, Mrs. Saltpen-Jago. Honoria Saltpen-Jago was a person of some social importance in London, of considerable importance and influence in the county of Chalkshire. The county of Chalkshire, or, at any rate, the eastern division of it, was of immediate personal interest to Philip Sletherby; it was held for the Government in the present Parliament by a gentleman who did not intend to seek re-election, and Sletherby was under serious consideration by the party managers as his possible successor, and with luck, the seat might be held. The Saltpen-Jago influence was not an item which could be left out of consideration, and the political aspirant had been delighted at meeting Honoria at a small and friendly luncheon-party, still more gratified when she had asked him down to her country house for the following Friday-to-Tuesday. He was obviously ‘on approval’, and if he could secure the goodwill of his hostess he might count on her nominating him as an assured thing. If he failed to find favour in her eyes — well, the local leaders would probably cool off in their embryo enthusiasm for him.

Among the passengers dotted about on the platform, awaiting their respective trains, Sletherby espied a club acquaintance, and called him up to the carriage-window for a chat.

“Oh, you’re staying with Mrs. Saltpen-Jago for the week-end, are you? I expect you’ll have a good time; she has the reputation of being an excellent hostess. She’ll be useful to you, too, if that Parliamentary project — hullo, you’re off. Good-bye.”

Sletherby waved good-bye to his friend, pulled up the window, and turned his attention to the magazine lying on his lap. He had scarcely glanced at a couple of pages, however, when a smothered curse caused him to glance hastily at the only other occupant of the carriage. His travelling companion was a young man of about two-and-twenty, with dark hair, fresh complexion, and the blend of smartness and disarray that marks the costume of a ‘nut’ who is bound on a rustic holiday. He was engaged in searching furiously and ineffectually for some elusive or non-existent object; from time to time he dug a sixpenny bit out of a waistcoat pocket and stared at it ruefully, then recommenced the futile searching operations. A cigarette-case, matchbox, latchkey, silver pencil case, and railway ticket were turned out on to the seat beside him, but none of these articles seemed to afford him satisfaction; he cursed again, rather louder than before. The vigorous pantomime did not draw forth any remark from Sletherby, who resumed his scrutiny of the magazine.

“I say!” exclaimed a young voice presently, “didn’t I hear you say you were going down to stay with Mrs. Saltpen-Jago at Brill Manor? What a coincidence! My mater, you know. I’m coming on there on Monday evening, so we shall meet. I’m quite a stranger; haven’t seen the mater for six months at least. I was away yachting last time she was in Town. I’m Bertie, the second son, you know. I say, it’s an awfully lucky coincidence that I should run across someone who knows the mater just at this particular moment. I’ve done a damned awkward thing.”

“You’ve lost something, haven’t you?” said Sletherby.

“Not exactly, but left behind, which is almost as bad; just as inconvenient, anyway. I’ve come away without my sovereign-purse, with four quid in it, all my worldly wealth for the moment. It was in my pocket all right, just before I was starting, and then I wanted to seal a letter, and the sovereign-purse happens to have my crest on it, so I whipped it out to stamp the seal with, and, like a double-distilled idiot, I must have left it on the table. I had some silver loose in my pocket, but after I’d paid for a taxi and my ticket I’d only got this forlorn little six pence left. I’m stopping at a little country inn near Brondquay for three days’ fishing; not a soul knows me there, and my week-end bill, and tips, and cab to and from the station, and my ticket on to Brill, that will mount up to two or three quid, won’t it? If you wouldn’t mind lending me two pound ten, or three for preference, I shall be awfully obliged. It will pull me out of no end of a hole.”

“I think I can manage that,” said Sletherby, after a moment’s hesitation.

“Thanks awfully. It’s jolly good of you. What a lucky thing for me that I should have chanced across one of the mater’s friends. It will be a lesson to me not to leave my exchequer lying about anywhere, when it ought to be in my pocket. I suppose the moral of the whole thing is don’t try and convert things to purposes for which they weren’t intended. Still, when a sovereign-purse has your crest on it–”

“What is your crest, by the way?” Sletherby asked, carelessly.

“Not a very common one,” said the youth; “a demi-lion holding a cross-crosslet in its paw.”

“When your mother wrote to me, giving me a list of trains, she had, if I remember rightly, a greyhound courant on her notepaper,” observed Sletherby. There was a tinge of coldness in his voice.

“That is the Jago crest,” responded the youth promptly; “the demi-lion is the Saltpen crest. We have the right to use both, but I always use the demi-lion, because, after all, we are really Saltpens.”

There was silence for a moment or two, and the young man began to collect his fishing tackle and other belongings from the rack.

“My station is the next one,” he announced. “I’ve never met your mother,” said Sletherby suddenly, “though we’ve corresponded several times. My introduction to her was through political friends. Does she resemble you at all in feature? I should rather like to be able to pick her out if she happened to be on the platform to meet me.”

“She’s supposed to be like me. She has the same dark brown hair and high colour; it runs in her family. I say, this is where I get out.”

“Good-bye,” said Sletherby.

“You’ve forgotten the three quid,” said the young man, opening the carriage-door and pitching his suit-case on to the platform.

“I’ve no intention of lending you three pounds, or three shillings,” said Sletherby severely.

“But you said–”

“I know I did. My suspicions hadn’t been roused then, though I hadn’t necessarily swallowed your story. The discrepancy about the crests put me on my guard, notwithstanding the really brilliant way in which you accounted for it. Then I laid a trap for you; I told you that I had never met Mrs. Saltpen-Jago. As a matter of fact I met her at lunch on Monday last. She is a pronounced blonde.”

The train moved on, leaving the soi-disant cadet of the Saltpen-Jago family cursing furiously on the platform.

“Well, he hasn’t opened his fishing expedition by catching a flat,” chuckled Sletherby. He would have an entertaining story to recount at dinner that evening, and his clever little trap would earn him applause as a man of resource and astuteness. He was still telling his adventure in imagination to an attentive audience of dinner guests when the train drew up at his destination. On the platform he was greeted sedately by a tall footman, and noisily by Claude People, K.C., who had apparently travelled down by the same train.

The K.C. was not the sort of man to notice an absorbed silence on the part of a companion. He had been silent himself for nearly an hour in the train, and his tongue was making up for lost time. Political gossip, personal anecdote, and general observation flowed from him in an uninterrupted stream as the car sped along the country roads; from the inner history of the Dublin labour troubles and the private life of the Prince Designate of Albania he progressed with an easy volubility to an account of an alleged happening at the ninth hole at Sandwich, and a verbatim report of a remark made by the Duchess of Pathshire at a Tango tea. Just as the car turned in at the Brill entrance gates the K.C. captured Sletherby’s attention by switching his remarks to the personality of their hostess.

“Brilliant woman, level-headed, a clear thinker, knows exactly when to take up an individual or a cause, exactly when to let him or it drop. Influential woman, but spoils herself and her chances by being too restless. No repose. Good appearance, too, till she made that idiotic change.”

“Change?” queried Sletherby, “what change?”

“What change? You don’t mean to say– Oh, of course, you’ve only known her just lately. She used to have beautiful dark brown hair, which went very well with her fresh complexion; then one day, about five weeks ago, she electrified everybody by appearing as a brilliant blonde. Quite ruined her looks. Here we are. I say, what’s the matter with you? You look rather ill.”

About the Author

Hector Hugh Munro (18 December 1870 – 14 November 1916), better known by the pen name Saki, and also frequently as H. H. Munro, was a British writer whose witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirize Edwardian society and culture. He is considered a master of the short story, and often compared to O. Henry. Besides his short stories he wrote a full-length play, The Watched Pot, in collaboration with Charles Maude.

Glossary

• embarked – boarded
• espied – caught sight of
• ineffectually – in vain
• ruefully – regretfully, sorrowfully
• pantomime – exaggerated behaviour
• quid – (British) one pound sterling
• exchequer – national treasury
• crest – a symbol representing a family, reproduced on writing paper
• tackle – equipment required for a task or sport
• discrepancy – difference
• soi-disant – self-styled
• astuteness – cleverness
• sedately – in a dignified manner
• sumptuous – expensive looking
• chaise – horse-drawn carriage
• expounded – explained
• volubility – fluency, talkativeness
• blonde – pale yellow hair
• Honoria /hɒˈnɔːrɪə/ – (Latin) honour, a woman of reputation
• mater /ˈmeɪtə/ – (Latin) mother
• courant /kʊˈrɑːnt/ – animal represented in the act of running

Exercises

1. Answer the following questions in about 30–50 words each:

a. Why did Philip Sletherby visit Brill Manor?
b. How would Sletherby gain from his friendship with Honoria Saltpen–Jago?
c. Why did his travel companion curse and mutter?
d. Describe Bertie’s problem.
e. ‘There was a tinge of coldness in his voice.’ Why?
f. Compare the two crests.
g. What was Sletherby’s response to Bertie’s request?
h. What caught his attention about the car door?
i. Describe Honoria Saltpen-Jago.
j. Why did K.C’s words shock Sletherby?

2. Rearrange the sentences given below and write a summary of the story in a paragraph.

Begin with: Philip Sletherby was travelling by train to Brill Manor.

a. The young man introduced himself as Bertie, the son of Saltpen Jago.
b. Bertie needed three pounds desperately and asked Sletherby to lend it to him.
c. All the time Sletherby was gazing at the door panel of the car, on which were the two crests – a demi-lion and a greyhound courant.
d. He was received by Claude People, K.C., who had kept on talking about various things.
e. Bertie had left his purse behind, after sealing an envelope with the crest on the purse.
f. Bertie stated that it was the Jago crest. He further added that his mother’s hair was dark brown similar to his.
g. While describing the appearance of Honoria Saltpen-Jago, K.C. referred to her altered hairstyle.
h. Sletherby realized that Bertie had not lied to him, but that he had mistaken him for a fraud.
i. He explained that the Saltpen crest was that of a demi-lion.
j. Sletherby sat dumbstruck on learning that Mrs. Honoria Saltpen Jago had changed her dark brown hair to a blonde, just five weeks ago.
k. Sletherby pointed out to him that his mother’s letter had a greyhound courant crest.
l. His companion in the train was a young man who was searching for something frantically.
m. Suspecting foul play, Sletherby did not give him any money, as he knew Mrs. Saltpen-Jago was a blonde.

3. Explain the following phrases selected from the story in your own words and work with a partner to make sentences using these phrases:

a) on approval
b) a rustic holiday
c) a double-distilled idiot
d) a tinge of coldness
e) making up for lost time

4. Answer the following questions in a paragraph of about 100–150 words each.

a) Describe the youth’s strange behaviour when he was in the train.
b) One has to be cautious and not be carried away by stories. How did Sletherby exhibit caution?
c) How did Sletherby’s judgement of Bertie turn out to be a wrong one?
d) As Sletherby, would you apologise to Bertie for your rude behaviour? Give reasons.
e) ‘Seeing is believing’. How is this humorously disproved in this story? Bring out the irony in the situation.

ICT Corner – Modal Verbs

Modal Auxiliaries indicate modalities, attitudes or feelings like ability, possibility, permission, obligation, compulsion, etc.
This activity will enable the students to learn modal auxiliary verbs with its usage.

STEPS

1. Access the application with the help of the link given below or the given QR code.
2. Click Modals in the Home page of the application to know about the various modal auxiliary verb along with examples.
3. Click Practice and Practice 2 to practice the expression of the statements like possibility, permission, request, advice etc.
4. Click Quiz One and Quiz Two to take a test in the usage of Modal verbs.
5. Do the Practice and Quiz exercises to learn more of Modal verbs.

DOWNLOAD THE APPLICATION

Click the following link or scan the QR code to access the English Modal Verbs application and download it.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.em.englishmodalverbs&hl=en