The little man held his sides, threw back his head, and laughed uproariously.
"Lead on, Joe!" exclaimed one of the policemen to his comrade. "We can't stop here arguing the point."
"Get back, man!" said the other constable, addressing the highly amused fisherman. "Get back, or I'll run you in for obstruction."
Just then the two Scoutmasters came up. The assertion of Gregory's uncle and the policemen's replies had been distinctly audible on board the Olivette. Realizing that there was certainly a mistake somewhere, Mr. Armitage jumped ashore to see the matter through, and Mr. Graham followed to back him up.
"I think there's some misunderstanding, Constable," observed Mr. Armitage. "We'll go with you to the station. This man's assertion quite conforms to—er—Gregory's statement when we picked him up in West Bay."
"But didn't you report the matter to Prawle Point, sir?" asked the policeman. "They telephoned the information on to us and we acted upon it."
A howl of execration burst from the lips of the onlookers. Clearly they regarded the Scoutmaster as the cause of the trouble.
Realizing that there was not much to be gained by arguing with a couple of policemen on Sutton Pool quay in the face of hostilely inclined onlookers, Mr. Armitage did not reply to the question.
A few minutes later the double doors of the police-station closed in the faces of a curious and demonstrative crowd, while the two Scoutmasters, Gregory, uncle and nephew, and the two policemen entered the charge-room, where they were greeted by a stern-faced inspector.
On the one hand the police had acted upon instructions. The description of the missing Borstal lad corresponded very closely with that of the youth removed from the Olivette. The time, place, and proximity to Portland, as far as the rescue in West Bay was concerned, tended to bear out the official view of the case.