in my harum-scarum way, go to work and try to give these creatures a
chance of living human lives? What then? Would Blackey or the girl or
the wicked old folk have gone to the bar and eaten away their morality
with alcohol if they had not been driven out by the stinking dulness of
that kitchen? I don't know. I only know that when this spell is over I
shall have some corrections to address to the people who stick up
institutes, and organise charitable funds. I can offer myself as the
horrid example, if they like, and that should impress them."

Then my musings were checked, for I had to cross a wooden bridge over
the odious stream that poisoned Teddy, and the fog was like flying
gruel. Carefully I picked my way over the bridge, and aimed for the
dark, narrow lane that led towards my abode. I remember thinking, "What
a place this would be if we were troubled with footpads!" Then came a
pause. Now you know how sound travels in a fog? I saw two posts standing
shadowily before me; then the posts appeared to fade away, or to be
closed up in the brown haze; then I distinctly heard a whisper, "He
ain't got her with him. You come after me." I was stooping, and peering
to find out who whispered. Wrench! I grasped at my neck. Crack! A sound
like the clanking of chains rattled in my head; a flash of many coloured
flame shot before my eyes; a hundred memories came vividly to me, and I
thought I was a boy again, and then I remember no more, until some voice
said, "Feelin' better?"

I was a little sick, and my head was bleeding, but otherwise I had
suffered no harm, and I could walk. It was as though I had received a
knock-down blow in a fight, and that does not hurt one for long. But how
lucky that the water was out of the mill stream! I had been pitched into
about six inches of water, and a policeman who heard the splash jumped
over some rails, and cut across a private paddock in time to save me