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For this reason it has come to be regarded as imperative for the eldest hand to order up at the bridge, unless he holds the right bower, or the left bower guarded, or the ace twice guarded, any one of which combinations is certain to win a trick against a lone hand if the eldest hand does not lead trumps himself. Another case is when the score is 4 to 4, and the eldest hand has average trump strength, good side cards, but nothing in the next suit. It is better to order it up, and risk the game on such a hand than to take the chance of the dealer’s turning it down. _=The Pone=_, who is the partner of the eldest hand, orders up at the bridge on exactly opposite principles. The fact that the eldest hand did not order up shows that the dealer cannot make a lone hand. This should indicate to the pone that his partner has a certain trick in trumps, and if the pone holds any good trumps himself, he can often guess what his partner’s trumps are. For instance: The ace is turned, and the pone holds the left bower guarded. The eldest hand must have the right bower, or four trumps to the King. If the eldest hand has passed at the bridge, and the pone has strong trumps himself, especially the ace or left bower and two small trumps, he should order up the trump; not to save the game, but to be sure of winning it by preventing the dealer from turning it down. If the pone does not order up at the bridge, the eldest hand may infer that he is weak in trumps.
It was with one of these guns that the beginning of our war game was made. It was at Sandgate--in England. [Illustration: Showing a country prepared for the war game] [Illustration: Showing countries prepared for the war game] The present writer had been lunching with a friend--let me veil his identity under the initials J. K. J.--in a room littered with the irrepressible debris of a small boy s pleasures. On a table near our own stood four or five soldiers and one of these guns. Mr J. K. J.