chanically, with a strange unsteadiness,
swaying and stumbling like a drunkard. He resented the warder's attempt
to help him up the steep, narrow steps leading to the courtyard; but as
he reached the highest step a sudden giddiness came over him, so that he
staggered and would have fallen backwards had the warder not caught him
by the shoulder.

*****

"There, he'll be all right now," said a cheerful voice; "they most of
them go off this way coming out into the air."

Arthur struggled desperately for breath as another handful of water
was dashed into his face. The blackness seemed to fall away from him
in pieces with a rushing noise; then he woke suddenly into full
consciousness, and, pushing aside the warder's arm, walked along the
corridor and up the stairs almost steadily. They stopped for a moment in
front of a door; then it opened, and before he realized where they were
taking him he was in the brightly lighted interrogation room, staring in
confused wonder at the table and the papers and the officers sitting in
their accustomed places.

"Ah, it's Mr. Burton!" said the colonel. "I hope we shall be able to
talk more comfortably now. Well, and how do you like the dark cell? Not
quite so luxurious as your brother's drawing room, is it? eh?"

Arthur raised his eyes to the colonel's smiling face. He was seized by
a frantic desire to spring at the throat of this gray-whiskered fop and
tear it with his teeth. Probably something of this kind was visible in
his face, for the colonel added immediately, in a quite different tone:

"Sit down, Mr. Burton, and drink some water; you are excited."

Arthur pushed aside the glass of water held out to him; and, leaning his
arms on the table, rested his forehead on one hand and tried to
collect his thoughts. The colonel sat watching him keenly, noting with
experienced eyes the unsteady hands and lips, the hair dripping with
water, the dim gaze that told of physical prostration and disordered
nerves.

"Now, Mr. Burton," he said after a few minutes; "we will start at the
point where we left off; and as there has been a certain amount of
unpleasantness between us, I may as well begin by saying that I, for my
part, have no desire to be anything but indulgent with you. If you will
behave properly and reasonably, I assure you that we shall not treat you
with any unnecessary harshness."

"What do you want me to do?"

Arthur spoke in a hard, sullen voice, quite different from h