Nobody answered. The fact was, I fear, we were all too busy looking after ourselves to look after any one else.
“He may have fallen crossing the line. Did anybody notice whether any one fell?”
Silence again. Then, with vague emphasis, Brentin said:
“Depend upon it, Mr. Parsons is ay gentleman of so much resource that, wherever he is, he may safely be left to extricate himself from embarrassment. Let us resoom the counting.”
I looked at him reproachfully.
“Mr. Brentin, it was agreed we stood by each other, I believe?”
“You were the first to get ahead, sir,” he replied, with what was meant for withering sarcasm, “and be off in the wrong boat.”
“Because I understood we were all safe.”
“So we were. So, no doubt, is Mr. Parsons.”
“And if at this moment he is in the hands of the police?”