They see the policeman advancing, and those that can swim get ashore and run for their little bits of clothing, tied up in a bundle ready for emergencies.

Into the water again they go for the other side! But, alas! another policeman is waiting on the other side at the place where they expected to land, so they must needs swim till another landing place offers security.

But even here they find that escape is hopeless, for yet another policeman awaits them.
Those who cannot swim seize their bundles, and, without waiting to dress, run naked and unashamed along the canal, side, to the merriment of the bargees, and the joy of the women and girls who happen to have no son or brother amongst them, for the underworld is not so easily shocked as the law and its administrators imagine.
Ultimately they, too, find a policeman waiting for them, and a "good bag" results.

But the magistrate is very lenient; with a twinkle in his eye he reproves them, and fines them one shilling each, which with great difficulty their "muvvers" pay.
But it has been a good day for the police, for four of them have helped to convey six shillings from the wretchedly poor to the coffers of the police-court receiver.

But when the school holidays come round, that is the time for the dirty canal to tell its tale, and to give up its dead, too! Read this from the Daily Press, July 16th, 1911-- "A remarkable record in life-saving was disclosed at a Bethnal Green inquest to-day on a child of six, named Browning, who was drowned in the Regent's Canal on Bank Holiday.
"Henry H.Terry, an out-of-work carman, said he was called from his home near by, and raced down to the canal.