"Right you are, sir." The big man followed Darwen into the engine room with long, stately strides and easy, confident air. He towered a good six inches over Darwen's head.
Bounce stood up and eyed him up and down, then he put his hands to his mouth and gave a mock hail. "Main top there!" he yelled.
The policeman smiled. "Don't you come talking to growed-up men," he said. "Shall I take 'im now, sir?"
"Half a minute," Carstairs said. "Let's weigh the combatants."
So they proceeded in solemn procession to the coal scales.
Bounce was eleven stone eight and a half pounds. "'E oughtn't to be out without his p'rambulator," the guardian of the law remarked, as he stepped into the scales, and brought them up with a bang. They shifted the weight along the rod till at nineteen stone eight and a half pounds it balanced.
Bounce nodded approval. "'E'd go near ten stone with 'is boots off," he said, with conviction.
"How tall are you?" Darwen asked.
"Six feet and a half. I was the tallest man in the Grenadier Guards when I was in it."
They went back to the boiler house and stood in a clear space under an arc lamp. The policeman took off his long coat and helmet, "In case 'e wipes 'is boots in it while I'm carrying of 'im."