Fantasy fiction; Science fiction; Utopias -- Fiction
Wow! but it was icy cold. For a moment the shock seemed to stop my
heart, and then it came right again and I struck out heartily. It didn't
take long to catch up with the gentleman in the cassock, who had come
up for the second time and apparently resigned himself to the worst. I
got hold of him, turned on my back and prepared for stern measures if he
should attempt to grip me.
He didn't. He was the easiest johnny to rescue possible, and in another
five minutes I'd got him safely to the bank and scrambled up.
There was nobody about, worse luck, and I started to pump the water out
of him as well as I could, and after a few minutes had the satisfaction
of seeing his face turn from blue-gray to something like its normal
yellow under the somewhat ghastly light of the moon. His teeth began to
chatter as I jerked him to his feet and furiously rubbed him up and
down.
I tried to recall what I knew of pigeon English.
"Bad man throw you in river. You velly lucky, man come by save you,
Johnny."
I had the shock of my life.
"I am indeed fortunate," came in a thin, reed-like voice, "I am indeed
fortunate in having found so brave a preserver. Honorable sir, from this
moment my life is yours."
"Why, you speak perfect English," I said in amazement.
"I have been resident in this country for some time, sir," he replied,
"as a student at King's College, until I undertook my present work."
"Well," I said, "we'd better not stand here exchanging polite remarks
much longer. There is such a thing as pneumonia, which you would do well
to avoid. If you're strong enough, we'll hurry up to the terrace and
find my house, where we'll get you dry and warm. I'm the landlord of
the 'Golden Swan' Hotel."
He was a polite fellow, this. He bowed profoundly, and then, as the
water dripped from his black and meager form, he said something rather
extraordinary.
"I should never have thought it."
I cursed myself. The excitement had made me return to the manner of
Piccadilly, and this shrewd observer had seen it in a moment. I said no
more, but took him by the arm and yanked him along for one of the
fastest miles he had ever done in his life.
I took him to the side door of my pub. Fortunately Ah Sing was
descending the stairs to replenish an empty decanter with whisky--my
yellow gentlemen used to like it in their tea! I explained what had
happened in a few words and my shivering derelict was hurried upstairs
to my own bedroom. I don't know what Rolston did to him, though I heard
Sliddim--now quite the house cat--directed to run down into the kitchen
and confer with Mrs. Abbs.
For my part, I sat in the room behind the bar, listening to the Honest
Fool talking with my patrons, and shed my clothes before a blazing fire.
A little hot rum, a change, and a dressing-gown, and I was myself again,
and smoking a pipe I fell into a sort of dream.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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