Berry extended his hand.
"Come along, sir."
The fellow threw one despairing glance about him, hung out of the car till he could reach Berry's hand, and then, with a frightful grunt, goose-stepped into space....
The sight of Mr. Dunkelsbaum, still hand-in-hand with Berry, endeavouring by the latter's direction to step out of twelve inches of water on to the foot-bridge—a feat which only a contortionist could have accomplished—was diverting in the extreme. But when the unfortunate creature did by some superhuman effort get the elongated toe of his right elastic-sided boot upon the plank, and Berry found himself unable to do more than haul him half-way to safety, so that for one long hectic moment he hung writhing convulsively, frantically waving his left leg in quest of a footing and alternately calling upon Heaven and frenziedly charging his betrayer not to let go; when, as a result of muscular vibration, his left boot worked loose and fell into the water with a derisive plop; when Nobby, who had been watching the efforts of the storming party in a fever of excitement, leapt from Adèle's arms on to my shoulders and thence into the flood, and, beating its raving owner by a matter of inches in a rush for the errant footgear, splashed his triumphant way to the bank and, amid a hurricane of execration, bore his waterlogged trophy into the undergrowth; then I bowed my head upon the steering-wheel and, throwing decency to the winds, ran before the tempest of Titanic laughter....
A wail of merriment from Adèle and a pressure upon my left arm brought me to my senses.
Watch in hand, Mr. Dunkelsbaum was dancing upon a strip of turf by the edge of the stream, bellowing at me to start the car.
"I do nod gare vor my bood, no. But der abboinmen'.... It vill nod vaid, I say. An' it is now vive minute to begin. Ach! What vor 'ave you sid dere an' laugh? My 'eart pleeds vor you. Ten tousand devil! But vill you sdard ub der auto?"
The yell with which he delivered the last sentence changed to a howl as his bootless foot alighted heavily upon an odd pebble, and Nobby peered out of some long grass, boot in mouth, to see whether the situation was affording further opportunities. Apparently it was not, for he lay down where he was and proceeded with the dismemberment of his spoil.
Adèle turned her head away and held her handkerchief to her eyes.
I set my foot upon the self-starter....