luckily seized the roots of a willow. At his end Joe did the same. We
hardly dared to breathe as we watched the doings on the other bank.

Lust, of blood or worse, and the fear of it, were there. The lighted
windows and the open door made every movement of the man and the girl
clearly visible. No one followed them. It was so ordinary an event to the
company, perhaps that it was not worth while leaving mirth and beer to see
the issue. But all serious elements in their affair changed abruptly and
to our instant jeopardy. On the very edge of the water the girl, knowing
her whereabouts to an inch, turned cleverly. The man, a stranger
obviously, ran on and pitched clean and far into the river, while she,
laughing and triumphant, scuttled back to the house. Her tale brought out
at once a spurt of men, yelling with joy, to watch the fun. Some of them
had snatched up lanterns and lighted candles, and they were followed later
by a fresh, older, shrieking woman who carried a huge, burning brand
plucked from the hearth.

Happily for us the river was shallow, for a couple of strokes would have
brought the man clean into us. The shock of the icy water sobered him. He
splashed and spluttered to his feet, climbed up the bank like a giant
water-rat, and would have slunk towards the house; but the rabble were on
him before he had taken a dozen paces, and tormented him till he roared
like a wounded bull. The woman with the brand cried out on him with vile
words that made my face burn in the dark, and belaboured him about the
head with her blazing cudgel. At every blow a shower of sparks flew out
that drove his rollicking mates into a ring around them at a safe distance
away. The man must have been set afire had he not been soused in the river
beforehand. None of his fellows tried to help him, just as before none had
tried to hinder him. It was his look out either way, and they enjoyed his
discomfiture with all the gusto of children. At last the breathless woman