Plainly, somebody had chosen this most unpropitious
season for an accidental bath, and his companions were sympathetically
watching him drown, while not daring, not dreaming of, any foolhardy
attempt at a rescue.
"'Tis Veale, sir. A'bram Veale, sir. Theer!" And all the cries came
loud and hearty. "Theer he goes ag'in. I see 'un come up and go under.
Oo, oo! Ain't 'un trav'lin'!"
"Catch th' 'orse!" shouted Dale; and next moment it was a double
entertainment that offered itself to hurrying spectators.
The water, charged with sediment from all the rich earth it had
scoured over, was thick as soup; its brown wavelets broke in slimy
froth, and its deepest swiftest course had a color of darkly shining
lead beneath the pale gleams of March sunshine. In this leaden glitter
the two men were swept away, seeming to be locked in each other's
arms, their heads very rarely out of the water, their backs visible
frequently; until at a boundary fence they vanished from the sight of
attentive pursuers who could pursue no further; and seemed in the
final glimpse as small and black as two otters fiercely fighting.
"Laard's sake," said one of the louts, "I'd 'a' liked to 'a' seen 'em
go over the weir and into the wheel--for 'tis to be, and there's
nought can stop it now.
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