With the utmost caution I put the Rolls at the splash, making no attempt to disguise my uneasiness.  Mr. Dunkelsbaum would naturally conclude that I was anxious lest the water was deep.  As a matter of fact, I was fearful lest the ford should prove shallow.

But luck was with us.

Very gently the great car entered the brown water, which was flowing slowly and steadily over its gravel bed.  With my heart in my mouth, I watched the water rise....  It was half-way to the running-board.  It was level—­above....  It was lapping the spare wheel, and—­we were in the deepest part.  Quick as a flash I changed into top and let in the clutch with a bang.  Instantly the engine stopped, and the car came to rest in mid-stream.

I took out my handkerchief and wiped my face.

There was an electric silence.  Then—­

“What’s the matter?” said Berry.

“Flooded out,” I said shortly, hoping that Mr. Dunkelsbaum was not an engineer.

As I spoke, I heard a choking sound at my shoulder.  I turned sharply, and there was my gentleman in a terrible toss.  His eyes were protruding, and he could hardly speak.

“To Brrrooch!” he screamed.  “To Brrrooch!  Ve mus’ go on.  I ’ave say it is fital.  Sdard der gar, man, sdard der gar!  What vor do you vaid?”

“I’ll try,” I said coolly.  “But you’ll have to get out.  Our only chance is to make her as light as possible.”

With a saintly look Berry opened the off-side door and sprang nimbly on to the foot-bridge.  Then he turned to the other.

“Come along, sir.”

Mr. Dunkelsbaum stared at the water as if it had been boiling oil.  As he estimated the distance he was to cover, a bead of perspiration began to course down his face.  It was the first of many....

Berry extended his hand.

“Come along, sir.”

The fellow threw one despairing glance about him, hung out of the car till he could reach Berry’s hand, and then, with a frightful grunt, goose-stepped into space....

The sight of Mr. Dunkelsbaum, still hand-in-hand with Berry, endeavouring by the latter’s direction to step out of twelve inches of water on to the foot-bridge—­a feat which only a contortionist could have accomplished—­was diverting in the extreme.  But when the unfortunate creature did by some superhuman effort get the elongated toe of his right elastic-sided boot upon the plank, and Berry found himself unable to do more than haul him half-way to safety, so that for one long hectic moment he hung writhing convulsively, frantically waving his left leg in quest of a footing and alternately calling upon Heaven and frenziedly charging his betrayer not to let go; when, as a result of muscular vibration, his left boot worked loose and fell into the water with a derisive plop; when Nobby, who had been watching the efforts of the storming party in a fever of excitement, leapt from Adele’s arms on to my shoulders and thence into the flood, and, beating its raving owner by a matter of inches in a rush for the errant footgear, splashed his triumphant way to the bank and, amid a hurricane of execration, bore his waterlogged trophy into the undergrowth; then I bowed my head upon the steering-wheel and, throwing decency to the winds, ran before the tempest of Titanic laughter....