Right Ho! Muybridge...

As ever, it all started in The Drones after a particularly ripe evening. My Aunt Agatha had left me in charge of her prize Siamese Cat and I was struck by the notion that it might be rather jolly to take the animal along for the evening. I was not wrong, she was the Life and Soul of the Party, engaging in banter with Pongo and Barmy whilst not neglecting to chew the fat with Oofy and Uncle Fred. A couple of Sportsmen were arguing about whether a cat's paws were ever all off the ground at the same time whilst it was engaged in rolling around and, being in possession of a bit of inside knowledge, I saw a way of cleaning up to the extent of a tenner from Oofy. The young Prosser was of the opinion that the cat DID lift all of its feet up at once whereas I had heard from a sound Egg that this was in fact NOT the case.

Having taken Oofy's bet, I was left with the simple matter of proving my case. Normally, I would go straight to Jeeves with a problem like this but relations between the Old Retainer and the Young Master had been a bit cool of late owing to his (the Old Retainer's) misguided opinion that his (the Yound Master's) fashionably holey socks were a bit infra dig.

Luckily Pongo had a camera to hand and we set to photographing the Siamese's cavortings. Unfortunately, I was rather generous with the Magnesium flare-powder and, once we had recovered the use of our eyes, Tiddles had legged it - last seen heading in the general direction of Shropshire.

I was left with one option - Jeeves. Whatever can be said against this man (his taste in fashion-forward socks, for example), no-one can claim that he holds a grudge and it was the work of an instant for him to purvey a replacement cat (thus saving the Young Master from Aunt Agatha's wrath (which has been compared to one of the more spirited hurricanes so popular in some areas of the world)) and to introduce a Mr Muybridge - a man with a patented contraption of trip wires and cameras who was able to take the pictures necessary to settle the bet.

Jeeves stands alone!

The only blot on the horizon was that, unaccountably, I had got it wrong about the cat's paws (it turns out that I was thinking of them always landing on their feet) and so I ended up owing Oofy ten pounds that I didn't have.

The only other blot was that Mr Muybridge's mechanism apparently required some woollen fabric to damp something or other and Jeeves had handed over my fashionable holey socks.

On the other hand, I was safe from Aunt Agatha's fearsome revenge and so, on balance, it was a relatively happy Bertie who sniffed the pre-Dinner G&T.