to promote your infernal
schemes; and you have helped that scoundrel Oscarovitch to abduct his
daughter. Well, law or no law, this shall be the end of your doings. You
will come with us as our prisoner, or you will not leave this room
alive."

"Those are hard words, mein Herr," said Phadrig, still speaking in
German. "I your prisoner! Why? What have I done to make this outrage on
English law possible?"

"You will do better to come, Mr Amena," said Hendry, in his quiet
official tone; "it will save a good deal of trouble both to you and us.
It must be the same in the end, you know. We have got you, and we don't
mean to let you do any more mischief. You have done quite enough
already. Now, will you come quietly, or shall we take you? We shall
charge you at Lambeth as a receiver of stolen goods: you will be
remanded for a week in custody, and by that time we shall have your
Prince in safe keeping in St Petersburg."

"Will you, really?" asked Phadrig, lifting his eyelids for the first
time during the interview. "I should have thought that a man of your
European experience would have called the Russian capital by its proper
name. Surely you know that only newspaper people make that mistake. It
is the city of Peter the Great, not Saint Peter the apostle. The
fortress of Petro-paulovsky is not named after saints--only after
Tsars."

There was a sneer in his voice as he made this trivial correction which
roused both Hendry and Von Hamner to anger. The German pulled his
revolver out of his hip pocket, and Hendry produced a beautiful pair of
polished handcuffs from his left trouser pocket.

"Ah, I see that you have come prepared, gentlemen!" said Phadrig, with a
laughing sneer in his low-voiced whisper. "Those are what you call the
bracelets in England, are they not? Well, since you are determined to
take the law into your hands--here are mine. Put them on M. Hendry, and
then your friend may not think it necessary to try and shoot me."

He held his hands out. The way in which he said "try and shoot me" did
not sound well in their ears, but Nicol Hendry thought that the work had
to be put through now or not at all. He took a couple of steps towards
Phadrig, and a couple of sharp snaps told Von Hamner that their prisoner
was safe. But the prisoner did not seem to think so. He raised his hands
and looked at the handcuffs. He seemed to examine them as though they
were curiosities.

"Are these really what you take criminals to