"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 prison with? They don't seem very strong. I could break them as though they were thread."
"That will do, Mr Amena. You've got them on now, and we don't want any more of your conjuring tricks. Come along, and take it quietly like a sensible man."
Hendry was fast losing patience, and Von Hamner was doing all he could to keep his finger off the trigger of the revolver.
"Ah yes, conjuring tricks you call them, you ignorants! Now look. You have put the handcuffs on to my wrists. Is this a conjuring trick? See!"
He held his arms out towards them, his two hands chained together.
"Mr Hendry, be good enough to take my right hand, and you, Herr von Hamner, my left. So; now shake my hands. You see, there are the handcuffs on the floor."