But could anybody seriously hope to get away with a crazy lark like that?
No, not in a million nights.
One couldn't even try it unless Jerry agreed. So why think about it?
Samantha was standing about six yards away, talking to Gilbert Mackesy. The fingers of her right hand were curled around a tall glass. The fingers were long and almost certainly dexterous.
Assuming, just for the fun of it, that Jerry did agree, then even so, there would still be gigantic snags along the - way. There was, for example, the little matter of physical characteristics. I had seen Jerry many times at the club having a shower after tennis, but right now I couldn't for the life of me recall the necessary details. It wasn't the sort of thing one noticed very much. Usually, one didn't even look.
Anyway, it would be madness to put the suggestion to Jerry point-blank. I didn't know him that well. He might be horrified. He might even turn nasty. There could be an ugly scene. I must test him out, therefore, in some subtle fashion.
'You know something,' I said to Jerry about an hour later when we were sitting together on the sofa having a last drink. The guests were drifting away and Samantha was by the door saying goodbye to them. My own wife Mary was out on the terrace talking to Bob Swain. I could see through the open french windows. 'You know something funny?' I said to Jerry as we sat together on the sofa.
'What's funny?' Jerry asked me.
'A fellow I had lunch with today told me a fantastic story. Quite unbelievable.'
'What story?' Jerry said. The whisky had begun to make him sleepy.
'This man, the one I had lunch with, had a terrific letch after the wife of his friend who lived nearby. And his friend had an equally big letch after the wife of the man I had lunch with. Do you see what I mean?'
'You mean two fellers who lived close to each other both fancied each other's wives.'
'Precisely,' I said.
'Then there was no problem,' Jerry said.
'There was a very big problem,' I said. 'The wives were both very faithful and honourable women.'
'Samantha's the same,' Jerry said. 'She wouldn't look at another man.'
'Nor would Mary,' I said. 'She's a fine girl.'
Jerry emptied his glass and set it down carefully on the sofa-table. 'So what happened in your story?' he said. 'It sounds dirty.'
'What happened,' I said, 'was that these two randy sods cooked up a plan which made it possible for each of them to ravish the other's wife without the wives ever knowing it. If you can believe such a thing.'
'With chloroform?' Jerry said.
'Not at all. They were fully conscious.'
'Impossible,' Jerry said. 'Someone's been pulling your leg.'
'I don't think so,' I said. 'From the way this man told it to me, with all the little details and everything, I don't think he was making it up. In fact, I'm sure he wasn't. And listen, they didn't do it just once, either. They've been doing it every two or three weeks for months!'
'And the wives don't know?'
'They haven't a clue.'
'I've got to hear this,' Jerry said. 'Let's get another drink first.'
We crossed to the bar and refilled our glasses, then returned to the sofa.
'You must remember,' I said, 'that there had to be a tremendous lot of preparation and rehearsal beforehand. And many intimate details had to be exchanged to give the plan a chance of working. But the essential part of the scheme was simple:
'They fixed a night, call it Saturday. On that night the husbands and wives were to go up to bed as usual, at say eleven or eleven thirty.
'From then on, normal routine would be preserved. A little reading, perhaps, a little talking, then out with the lights.