"Hello! why the devil don't you answer?" Gregg demanded; apparently not feeling positive that Fritz was in the flesh. "If you don't answer, I'm hanged if I don't drown ye."
No answer from Fritz.
But from directly over the villain's head seemed to come the words, in a hoarse voice:
"Villain, behold the reflection of your crime!"
"Bah!" Gregg cried, with a start, glaring about him. "You can't play any tricks on me, you Dutch blunderbuss! In some way you've escaped the trap, and now I'll pay you a grudge I've got against you."
And with a long knife in hand which he had drawn from his belt, he dashed fiercely at Fritz, regardless of the drawn revolver.
Leveling his pistol at his opponent's breast, the young detective pulled the trigger.
The weapon missed fire.
Gregg was almost upon him now.
There was but a moment to act, and yet, in that time, Fritz hurled the weapon with great velocity at the villain's head, and somersaulted backward into the water, the toe of one of his boots catching Gregg in under the lower jaw.