other, touching his damp forelock.     

       “Are they drunk?” asked Mrs. De Peyton, with fresh enthusiasm.     

       “No, they are not, poor fellows,” cried Penelope. “They have taken nothing but water.”      

       “By Jove, deuced clever that,” drawled the duke. “Eh?” to the New Yorker.     

       “Deuced,” from the Knickerbocker.     

       “Well, well, what's it all about?” demanded Bazelhurst.     

       “Mr. Shaw, sir,” said James.     

       “Good Lord, could n't you rescue him?” in horror.     

       “He rescued us, sir,” mumbled Tompkins.     

       “You mean—”      

       “He throwed us in and then had to jump in and pull us out, sir. Beggin'       your pardon, sir, but damn him!”      

       “And you did n't throw him in, after all? By Jove, extraordinary!”      

       “Do you mean to tell us that he threw you great hulking creatures into the river? Single-handed?” cried Lady Bazelhurst, aghast.     

       “He did, Evelyn,” inserted Penelope. “I met them coming home, and poor Tompkins was out of his senses. I don't know how it happened, but—”      

       “It was this way, your ladyship,” put in James, the groom. “Tompkins and me could see him from the point there, sir, afishin' below the log. So we says to each other 'Come on,' and up we went to where he was afishin'. Tompkins, bein' the game warden, says he to him 'Hi there!' He was plainly on our property, sir, afishin' from a boat for bass, sir. 'Hello, boys,'       says he back to us. 'Get off our land,' says Tompkins. 'I am,' says he;       'it's water out here where I am.' Then—”      

       “You're wrong,” broke in Tompkins.     

       “He said 'it 's wet 

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