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There were a couple of schooners used in the china-clay trade lying at the quayside; at anchor was a barquentine, a big bluff-bellied tramp of a creature, black with coaldust, and beyond her again what was still a rare sight in those parts a steamer. She was a side-wheeler, with a thin raking funnel, and was square-rigged on her fore-mast, fore-and-aft on her mizzen.
Whatever my three friends were up to, it is possible that they might now have been left in peace for some time; for the crowd, seeing no chance of further sport from Coaldust, began to melt away. But a fresh character entered the scene to keep alive the nagging interest of the drama.
The skipper favored him with a glance the dignity of which was somewhat impaired by his complexion, and in a slow and stately fashion ascended to the deck. Then he caught his breath sharply and paled beneath the coaldust as he saw Sergeant Pilbeam standing on the quay, opposite the ship.
The crowd, deeply interested and breathing hard, stood round waiting for the performance to begin. It was Coaldust who took the lead. "Tip us a song and dance, Clara," he said encouragingly. Robin, who had been making a show of unfastening the bundle, suddenly rose to his feet. Coaldust saw him. "All right, Carnegie," he remarked hurriedly. "No offence, ole pal!"
Certainly they were doing it rather well. They were admirably made up, Dicky was a past-master at that sort of thing, and their operations so far had been sufficiently like the genuine article to impose upon the public in general, if we except Champion and Coaldust, even to the point of securing the assistance of the traffic-directing policeman.
Meanwhile Coaldust, who had been inspecting the result of our friends' united labours with some interest, suddenly echoed the question which had first exercised Champion's logical mind by inquiring what the blank dash the two adjectival criminals and the qualified nipper thought they were doing to the asterisked road. He received no encouragement.
This heartrending piece of intelligence touched the crowd, and Coaldust was instantly forward in proposing an informal vote of condolence, which was seconded by a bare-armed lady in a deerstalker cap. But the policeman, evidently roused by our friends' ill-judged and precipitate attempt to strike camp, suddenly produced a pocket-book from his tunic, and said
The river was near at hand, still wearing its Parisian aspect, filled with chains, bathing establishments, great barges, and multitudes of little, skiffs, with a layer of coaldust on their pretentious, freshly- painted names, tied to the pier and rocking to the slightest motion of the water.
The singular appearance of these women has puzzled many a southern stranger. All grimed with coaldust, they swing along the street with their dinner baskets and cans in their hands, chattering merrily. To the waist they are dressed like men, in strong trousers and wooden clogs. Their gowns, tucked clean up, before, to the middle, hang down behind them in a peaked tail.
"Buck'nam Pallis!" shouted Coaldust, before any one else in the crowd could say it. The policeman turned and directed upon him a look that would have entirely obfuscated a soberer man. "I'll attend to you presently," he said in the exact tones which my dentist employs when he shuts me into the waiting-room. "Now then, your address? Come along!"
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