"The kid'll die of cold! We must get it out of the way at once!"
"Not a day old!" Alec mused.
"Get a move on, for God's sake! Where shall we take it?"
"The police-station just along!" Philip suggested.
"Yes, the very place!" Harry took off his greatcoat and placed it over the top of the basket. "Here, Alec, take hold of the other handle!"
The baby was delivered into the hands of an inspector, summoned by a policeman who refused to have anything to do with the case. The inspector scrutinized the three lads suspiciously, as if he were ready to believe that one or the other of them was the father of the child. They made their statement and at length, reluctantly, he allowed them to withdraw.
"By Heaven!" muttered Harry, "What a swine the man is!"
"Who do you mean?" asked Alec, who, now that the practical matter had been discharged and they were once more entering the immaterial world of thought, reassumed the elderliness of his voice and manner. "Who do you mean, vague youth, is a swine? The inspector!"
"No! The father!"
"Yes, I'm with you! But what about the mother?"