Lord Dunseverick looked at the prostrate Von Edelstein.
“What are we going to do with him?” he asked.
“Drown him,” said McMunn.
A trickle of blood was running down Von Edelstein’s chin. He spat out some fragments of broken teeth.
“It appears,” he said, “that I have made a mistake about your intentions.”
“You’ve offered an outrageous insult to loyal men,” said McMunn.
“A mistake,” said Von Edelstein, “but surely excusable. I have in my pocket at the present moment—would you be so kind as to feel in my breast pocket? You’ll find some papers there, and a newspaper cutting among them.”
Lord Dunseverick slipped his hand into the prisoner’s pocket. He drew out a number of letters and a newspaper cutting. It was a report, taken from the Belfast News Letter, of the speech which he had made at Ballymena a fortnight before. He had proclaimed the Kaiser the deliverer of Ulster. His own words stared him in the face. McMunn took the cutting and glanced at it. He thumped his fist on the table.
“I stand by every word of it,” he said. “We will not have Home Rule.”
“You are a curious people,” said Von Edelstein. “I thought—and even now you say——”