“Meanwhile the man with the lantern was pointing it this way and that, while his companion kept insisting that he had seen nothing at all.
“‘But I did,’ he protested. ‘I saw the whole of his round, funny face and, believe it or not, he was sliding along on the top of the water.’
“At this reply the one who was rowing almost tumbled over with laughter. In doing so he loosed his hold on the oars so that the boat swung about and so almost bumped into Gray Ears and me.
“‘There goes an old log with a broken-off limb all covered with vines—how would it do for your clown who sits on the water?’ jeered the doubting one. And, he still poking fun and the other still looking, the two of them passed on, while we again took to our course, to finally land on the coveted shore.
“We found ourselves standing in what seemed to be a yard of considerable size and skirted on all but the river’s side by a very tall fence. To the right and the left were gigantic bunkers piled high with coal. Between these we advanced, but had gone scarcely three paces when we came face to face with a big, bearded watchman who carried a glaring white light in one of his hands and a knotted, black stick in the other.
“‘Hey, there!’ he cried. ‘You can’t come in here. It’s ’gainst the rules.’
“‘But, sir, we must do so,’ I pleaded. ‘We’ve just got to go on.’
“‘Got to nuthin’,’ retorted the man. ‘There’s orders writ plain as paint. Now you two gwan right back into the river.’
“And he turned his light on a huge board of white on which there appeared in very black letters:
NOTICE