f Dr Christie could see you!'' She belched. ''What''s this about arms?''
She bared her own. Nurse Flew and the dark nurse bared theirs. The other nurse came back with a length of ribbon and a ruler, and they took it in turns to measure their muscles. I watched them do it, as a man in a darkened wood might, disbelieving his own eyes, watch goblins; for they stood in a ring and moved the lamp from arm to arm, and it threw strange lights and cast queer shadows; and the beer, and the heat, and the excitement of the measuring made them seem to lurch and hop.
''Fifteen!'' they cried, their voices rising. Then: ''Sixteen!— Seventeen!—Eighteen-and-a-half!—Nineteen! Nurse Flew has it!''
They broke their circle then, and put down the light, and fell about quarrelling—not so much like goblins, suddenly, as like sailors. You half expected them to have tattoos. Nurse Bacon''s face was darker than ever. She said sulkily,
''As to arms, well, I''ll let Nurse Flew take it this time; though I''m sure fat oughtn''t to count the same as muscle.'' She rubbed her hands across her waist. ''Now, what about weight?'' She put up her chin. ''Who here says they''re heavier than me?''
At once, two or three of them got up beside her and said they were. The others tried to pick them up, in order to prove it. One of them fell down.
''It''s no good,'' they said. ''You wriggle about so, we can''t tell. We need another way. What say you stand upon a chair and jump? We''ll see who makes the floor creak most.''