“You didn’t seem to think so yesterday,” said Dr. O’Grady. “And I wouldn’t make too sure now, if I were you. If they are fighting downstairs, and I can’t hear plainly enough to be certain——”
“I can,” said Mr. Sanders.
“I expect,” said Dr. O’Grady, “that the Emperor will get the best of it. He’ll probably be in on us here in a minute or two as proud as Punch at having bagged another chance traveller. If the Emperor has a fault at all, it’s his extraordinary fondness for kidnapping people. I can’t think why he does it.”
“They’re coming upstairs,” said Mr. Sanders. “I hear them distinctly.”
“They are,” said Dr. O’Grady; “a whole lot of people. I wonder who he has got this time.”
The door of the room was unlocked. There was a short scuffle outside, and then Sergeant Farrelly and Constable Cole were thrust in. They both looked as if they had been roughly handled. The sergeant’s tunic was torn, his right eye was beginning to swell, and there was blood on his lower lip. Mr. Red, looking very grim and determined, stalked into the room behind them.
“Emperor,” said Dr. O’Grady, “this is too much. I complained to you yesterday about the habit you have got into of thrusting strange people in on top of me and Patsy. I put up with the last two, but this is more than I am going to stand.”
“They remain here,” said Mr. Red, “as captives.”
“Not at all,” said Dr. O’Grady. “Think it over, Emperor, and you’ll come to see that you can’t possibly leave them here. You are an anarchist, an anti-military anarchist. You’ve often told me so yourself. Now, an anarchist, as I understand his position, is absolutely pledged to every kind of social reform. Whatever anybody else may do, an anarchist can’t consistently go in for the over-crowding of tenement houses, or tolerate insanitary prisons. You see that, don’t you? If ever it got out that you’d shut up six men in one room and kept them there, your reputation would be gone. There wouldn’t be a decent anarchist anywhere in the world who’d recognize you as belonging to his party or so much as speak to you. You’d be a sort of Suraja Dowlah with a horrible Black Hole of Calcutta story cropping up against you at every turn. You simply must give these two men—— Oh, you’re going, are you? Very well. But think over what I’ve said. You’ll realize that I’m right.”
Mr. Red shut the door and locked it. Sergeant Farrelly turned fiercely on Constable Cole.