"Your character's deteriorating," said Tom, with gloom. "Here, Garth, hop up on my shoulder." He swung the small boy up and turned to the edge of the wharf.
A long sapling had been lashed to the wharf, projecting out over the water. Its smooth surface shone from a liberal allowance of soft soap, and a small flag was thrust into a hole bored in its far end. As they watched, the first competitor appeared—a tall boy, in an old shirt and trousers. He started gingerly along the pole, and made excellent progress until he was half-way. Then his feet suddenly slid from under him, and he sat down abruptly, the pole quivering and bounding under his weight. He clawed wildly at the slippery surface. Then the water received him kindly.
He rose to the surface amid the shrieks of the delighted populace, and struck out for the steps, as the next competitor, a Melbourne schoolboy in a bathing-suit, appeared on the pole. Unfortunately, his career was even shorter. His first step was rash, his second even wilder: he slid for a moment, and then the end came quickly. Just below him the first lad was swimming. The Melbourne boy fell on him bodily, and they disappeared together in a whirlpool of spray. Those of the onlookers who had room at this point sat down on the wharf and held their aching sides.
The fun grew fast and furious as, one after another, valiant men and boys started along the pole, and, sooner or later, plunged, gasping and struggling, into, the depths. Some got as far as half-way, others succumbed in the first three steps, but all alike went down, and the various methods of their falling were sufficient to keep the spectators in roars of laughter. Finally a black boy achieved a meteoric progress, shuffling sideways along the pole so swiftly that it seemed he gave his feet no time to slip until almost at the very end, where the pole narrowed in what Tom termed an inhuman fashion. Then he shot into space: but, even in falling, he grasped the flag, and brought it proudly with him from the bottom of the lake.
"Oh, wasn't it lovely!" Garth gasped. His peals of laughter had rung out even above the joyful shouts all round him. "Oh, I wish they'd do it all over again!"
"Do you!" said a wet and greasy competitor, striding wrathfully past in search of his clothes. Then he met the dancing eyes and grinned in friendly fashion, and disappeared among the crowd.
Tom put his son down, and tucked the handle of Pa Smith's umbrella under his arm, holding it against his side.
"I'll see you presently," he said to Aileen. "Must go and return this." He moved away with the throng.
Where the goods store blocked part of the end of the wharf, a wrathful voice fell on his ear.
"If the Gov'n'ment 'ud give us a policeman or two in this township it 'ud be better for honest people! Thieves! the place is full of them!"