But anyone with a knowledge of the eternal populace knows that if the outside rim of a crowd stirs ever so slightly it means that there is madness in the heart and core of the mob.

It soon became evident that something really important had happened in the centre of this excitement.

We wormed our way to the front, with the cunning which is known only to cockneys, and once there we soon learned the nature of the difficulty.

There had been a brawl concerned with some six men, and one of them lay almost dead on the stones of the street.

Of the other four, all interesting matters were, as far as we were concerned, swallowed up in one stupendous fact.
One of the four survivors of the brutal and perhaps fatal scuffle was the immaculate Lieutenant Keith, his clothes torn to ribbons, his eyes blazing, blood on his knuckles.