“Now you've got us, and now you haven't!” cried the detective.
At the same instant he exerted all his great strength, and with a motion as unexpected as it was effective, he threw himself forward in to the police boat with all his weight upon one side.
He knew that the instant the boat began to tip the instinct of self-preservation would compel the officers to lean the other way, and he had calculated upon that.
He was not mistaken.
As the boat tipped the policemen threw themselves the other way to right it.
Then, while with one foot the detective sent his own boat out of the way in safety he allowed himself to pitch across the police boat landing with his full weight upon the opposite gunwale.
The policemen were already upon that side. The additional weight had exactly the effect that Nick had calculated upon.
The boat was instantly capsized, and Nick and the three officers were tumbled unceremoniously into the river.
The whole thing took place so quickly that the officers had no time to guess what was coming.
Nick, who did it all, took measures to secure his own safety.