The String of Pearls (1850), p. 695

"Oh, yes—yes, I am quite well, I thank you."
"Well, I'm glad to hear it , for you look just as if you had been buried a month, and then dug up again."
"Ha!—ha!" laughed Todd,—what a hideous attempt at a laugh it was!—"that is very good."
"that is very good."
"Oh, lor! do you laugh that way when you are at home? 'cos it you do, I should expect the roof to tumble in with fright, I should."
"How funny you are," said Todd. "Pull away."
He did venture to say, "pull away!" and the men did pull with right good-will, so that the landing-place, and the long police-boat that was at it, looked just like two specks by the river-side; and, indeed it would have been a long pull and a strong one to catch Todd's wherry.
The murderer breathed a little more freely.
"How far have we got to go now?" he said.
"Oh, a matter of nine miles yet."
"And how long will it take you?"
"About one hour and a quarter, with the tide running at such a pace as it is. There's some wind, too, and what there is, is all with us, so we cut along favourably. What are they doing away yonder, Bill?"
"Where?" said Bill.
"Right in our wake, there. Oh, they are getting up a sail. I'll be hanged if they ain't, and pulling away besides! Why, what a hurry they must be in, to be sure, to get down the river. I never knew them do that before. Todd looked along the surface of the water, and he saw the police-boat coming along at such a rate, that the spray was tossed up in the air before her prow in millions of white particles.
A puff of smoke came from her side, and a slight sharp report rung upon the morning air. A musket or a pistol had been discharged on board of her.
"What's the meaning of that, Bill?"
"I can tell you," said Todd, sharply, before Bill had done moving his head from side to side, which was a habit of his preparatory to replying to any very intricate question.
"I can tell you easily."
"What is it then?"
"You pull away, and I'll tell you. You see that boat with the sail and the six rowers there?"
"Yes, yes!"
"And you heard them fire a gun?"
"To be sure."
"Well, pull away, and I'll tell you. You must know that Mr. Anthony Strong, who is in command of that police-boat, is my brother-in-law, and he laid a wager with me, that he would start from the pier at Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, at daybreak this morning, and get to Gravesend before me, if I started from Blackfriars, and did the best I possibly could to get on that money and men could do for me. I allowed that he was to take all his six rowers with him, and hoist his sail if he liked, and I was to take no more than two water-men at a time. When he saw me, he was to fire a gun, you see; and the wager is for twenty pounds and a dinner. I should like to win it, and so, if you can fairly beat him, with the start you have, which is above a mile—"
"It's above two," said Baill. "Water's deceiving."
"Well, I'm glad to hear it; and I was going to say, I would stand five guineas!"
"You will, old fellow?"
"I will; and to convince you of it, here they are, and I will place them in your hands at once; so now, I do hope that you will away like devils!"
"Won't we! If Mr. Anthony Strong, with all his sail and his six hands,