.

As the ferry came alongside the crowd gradually drew together more
closely, and some, who had been sitting in dejection on the seats, rose
and joined us. A tall policeman walked to and fro, keeping us back,
bending his head to listen to a woman with a baby. Young men in flashy
button-boots and extravagantly-cut clothes chuckled among themselves,
while two serious-looking men talked German, an endless argument. Above
us the Stars and Stripes fluttered and snapped in the breeze, and the
trains on the Elevated Road crawled carefully round the curve. Now and
again the deep bellow of a steamer's whistle smote on our ears, smears
of sound on the persistent roar of the city behind us. The feet of the
little crowd shuffled as they shifted to get a better view, and two
boys, chewing gum, climbed on the seats and stood up. A small girl of
ten or so sped past on roller-skates, uttering shrill cries to a
companion beyond the grass-plot. And then the gates opened and they came
out to us, a little flock of frightened animals, each with his ticket
pinned on his breast, each looking round for an instant as sheep do when
let out of a pen, instantly herded by officials in peaked caps. A big,
unshaved man in a black sheepskin cap opened his arms and the woman with
the baby hurried to him. A smart girl behind us pushed through and went
up to a sullen-looking old man with a Derby hat and a high-arched nose.
The boys on the seat exchanged ribaldry that drew the eyes of the tall
policeman to them, and they vanished. The little crowd of aliens began
to move towards the East Side and we followed as far as the Staten
Island Ferry. I turned to Mr. Carville, thinking he might have some
comment to make. He shrugged his shoulders and drew out his little brass
tobacco-box.

"Humph!" he said. "They've got it all to come," and began to pare the
tobacco into his hand. I could detect no sympathy in his tone, only a
grim humour and contempt for the credulity of those trembling peasants
now hurrying to their doom. And as I thought of this, quite suddenly he
began to talk of his brother.

"I've often wondered what Frank would have made of all this," he said,
waving his hand towards the sweep of the Brooklyn Bridge. "Not that I'd
like him to come near me and mine, but just out of curiosity, I've
wondered."

"I should say he would be likely to get on well," I said.

"You're right--he would! He would take hold right away and as they say
here get away