By the second honk Tuesday had the look of a day on which very little meant to happen. The correspondent made a circuit of the customary stations and came round, in time, to the view that very little was. The reeds were quiet. The pigeonholes sat undisturbed. The Clerk was at the reeds by the third honk, moving a small quantity of paperwork from one place to another with the unhurried thoroughness that is, by now, his standing contribution to the public sense of order.
Drake Halford was at his customary station on the east shore, near enough to a reed to suggest he was making, in his own time, the considered adjustments long residence on the east shore tends to require. He did not file. The Subcommittee did not convene. No item was lodged at the reeds, in the whole of the correspondent’s watch, that the standards of recent weeks would call new business. The day went down under the heading the correspondent keeps for such days: the pond, at its own occupation.
One thing did come in. It reached this paper from a quarter the correspondent is for now unwilling to name, and is set down under the usual caveat. The Clerk of the Race, absent from the pond all season, and the reason the rematch Channel Sprint has now twice been put off, was rumoured to have been seen at the upper bend on Monday evening. The second of those deferrals fell at the new moon of the fourteenth, as readers of that bulletin will recall. The reeds have not confirmed the sighting. The fishing party of mallards from the upper bend, who would on the whole be best placed to confirm such a thing, had filed nothing of their own by the time of going to press. So the rumour is recorded under the heading “things heard, not verified.” Should it prove out, the rematch might at last be in reach of a date, which would be a development of some weight for the season’s outstanding business.
The afternoon light held. The water kept the warmth July is now beginning to ask for. The older drakes were at their station on the south bank, at a conversation the correspondent took, on this occasion, no pains to overhear. The dabchicks held their settled formation at the west pier. The heron held the pier. The fish, on all visible evidence, were elsewhere.
So the one question Tuesday raised, it left for Wednesday: whether the Clerk of the Race is coming back by way of the upper bend, or is not.