'Where's a police officer?' said Mr Snodgrass.
 
'Put them under the street pump,' suggested a man selling hot pies.
 
'You shall suffer for this,' gasped Mr Pickwick.
 
'Informers!' shouted the crowd.
 
'Come on,' cried the cabman, who had been boxing away without stopping the whole time.

The mob until then had been passive spectators of the scene, but as the news that the Pickwickians were informers began to spread among them, they began to discuss with considerable vivacity whether they should indeed soak the Pickwickians under the pump.
 
There is no saying what acts of personal aggression they might have committed, had not the affray been unexpectedly ended by the arrival of a newcomer.

'What's the fun?' said a rather tall, thin young man, in a green coat, emerging suddenly from the coach-yard.
 
'Informers!' shouted the crowd again.