Page:Braddon--The Trail of the Serpent.djvu/180

176 he never could have reached that in this time if he had been the best swimmer in England."

The men took it for granted that they had been informed of his escape the moment it occurred.

"He must have jumped slap into the water," said another; "perhaps he's about somewhere, contriving to keep his head under."

"He couldn't do it," said the first man who had spoken; "it's my opinion the poor chap's drowned. They will try these escapes, though no one ever succeeded yet."

There was a boat moored at the angle of the asylum wall, and one of the men sprang into it.

"Show me the place where he jumped over the wall," he called to the boy, who pointed out the spot at his direction.

The man rowed up to it.

"Not a sign of him anywhere about here!" he cried.

"Hadn't you better call to those men?" asked his comrade; "they must have seen him jump."

The man in the boat nodded assent, and rowed across the river to the two fishermen.

"Holloa!" he said, "have you seen any one get over that wall?"

One of the men, who had just impaled a fine eel, looked up with a surprised expression, and asked—

"Which wall?"

"Why the asylum, yonder, straight before you."

"The asylum! Now, you don't mean to say that that's the asylum; and I've been taking it for a gentleman's mansion and grounds all the time," said the angler (who was no other than Mr. Augustus Darley), taking his pipe out of his mouth.

"I wish you'd give a straight answer to my question," said the man; "have you seen any one jump over that wall; yes, or no?"

"Then, no!" said Gus; "if I had, I should have gone over and picked him up, shouldn't I, stupid?"

The other fisherman, Mr. Peters, here looked up, and laying down his eel-spear, spelt out some words on his fingers.

"Stop a bit," cried Gus to the man, who was rowing off, "here's my friend says he heard a splash in the water ten minutes ago, and thought it was some rubbish shot over the wall."

"Then he did jump! Poor chap, I'm afraid he must be drowned."

"Drowned?"

"Yes; don't I tell you one of the lunatics has been trying to escape over that wall, and must have fallen into the river?"