West's strident voice rose almost to a wail; but no sooner had she ceased than another voice was heard, coming again from the bank below them.
"Easy, Eliza, easy!--it's not so bad as that! I've got as much water inside me as I care to swallow, and my uniform's about done for; but that's about the worst. Let alone that I can swim, he didn't throw me in so deep; if it hadn't been for the weeds I'd have been ashore before this, only I couldn't speak a word because of the water that had got in my throat." A hatless figure came up the bank, whose owner seemed conscious that, in his then condition, in that light, he might be unrecognisable. "It's me, sergeant--Carter, two, nine, four. I have to report that I arrested the girl, Dorothy Gilbert----"
"That you did, 'Gustus, I saw you do it; and that hundred pounds is mine--fairly earned!"
"Now, Eliza, I'm talking; you mind your own business, and leave that hundred pounds alone. I also arrested the chap who was with her; only, just as I was going to put the handcuffs on the pair of them, he chucked me into the river and that's how it is, sergeant."
Still a third voice joined in the conference; in spite of its easy suavity it was obviously one which was used to command.
"Policemen here? What is the meaning of this?"
The speaker came up the steps, on to the lawn.
"Is this the man," inquired Mr Batters of Mr Carter, "whom you arrested and who assaulted you?"
Mr Carter shook his head.
"No, sergeant, that's not the man; nothing like him."