hat we
call a Mill-and-Screw."

He began to explain the machine with the manner and tone of a lecturer
at a scientific institution. In spite of themselves, the officers burst
out laughing. I looked round at Screw as the doctor got deeper into his
explanations. The traitor was rolling his wicked eyes horribly at me.
They presented so shocking a sight, that I looked away again. What was I
to do next? The minutes were getting on, and I had not heard a word
yet, through the peephole, on the subject of the reserve of Bow Street
runners outside. Would it not be best to risk everything, and get away
at once by the back of the house?

Just as I had resolved on venturing the worst, and making my escape
forthwith, I heard the officers interrupt the doctor's lecture.

"Your lunch is a long time coming," said one of them.

"Moses is lazy," answered the doctor; "and the Madeira is in a remote
part of the cellar. Shall I ring again?"

"Hang your ringing again!" growled the runner, impatiently. "I don't
understand why our reserve men are not here yet. Suppose you go and give
them a whistle, Sam."

"I don't half like leaving you," returned Sam. "This learned gentleman
here is rather a shifty sort of chap; and it strikes me that two of us
isn't a bit too much to watch him."

"What's that?" exclaimed Sam's comrade, suspiciously.

A crash of broken crockery in the lower part of the house had followed
that last word of the cautious officer's speech. Naturally, I could draw
no special inference from the sound; but, for all that, it filled me
with a breathless interest and suspicion, which held me irresistibly at
the peephole--though the moment before I had made up my mind to fly from
the house.

"Moses is awkward as well as lazy," said the doctor. "He has dropped the
tray! Oh, dear, dear me! he has certainly dropped the tray."

"Let's take our learned friend downstairs between us," suggested Sam. "I
shan't be easy till we've got him out of the house."

"And I shan't be easy if we don't handcuff him before we leave the
room," returned the other.

"Rude conduct, gentlemen--after all that has passed, remarkably rude
conduct," said the doctor. "May I, at least, get my hat while my hands
are at liberty? It hangs on that peg opposite to us." He moved toward it
a few steps into the middle of the room while he spoke.

"Stop!" said Sam; "I'll get your hat for you. We'll see if there's
anything inside it or not, before you put it on."