"You ought to be ashamed of yourselves," said Mrs. M'Corseter fiercely, "great big hulking fellows like you! It's a shame, that's what 1 call it, it's a downright shame if decent people can't sleep in their beds at night without having homicidal maniacs running loose-"
"Eh?"
Mrs. M'Corseter proceeded to describe a butchered neighbourhood in a way which would have made anyone's flesh creep.
"Here, now!" said the sergeant, flustered. "There's no homicidal maniac, ma'am. It's only "
"Don't you try to deceive me," said Mrs. M'Corseter. "I'm a taxpayer, and I won't have it. It was a policeman that told me it was a nasty, dangerous crazy-man, with a razor all over blood; so don't you try to deceive me, young man! What's more, your policeman took very good care he didn't run up against any nasty, dangerous crazy-man. He didn't take any chances; not him! He went into `The Larches' next door, and he hasn't come out yet, and what he's doing there all this time I don't know
Again there was a thunderous pause.
"But I know," said the sergeant. "In you go, Dennis!"
There was a rush of feet, a creak as the back gate swung open, and then another holocaust of flying bottles. My two companions very slowly turned to stare at me.