“We’ve got to maintain order,” he said suddenly, as though repelling a subtle onslaught on his point of view.
“Of course; everything in this room, I suppose, is for that purpose?”
“Everything—that’s in use.”
“Ah, yes! I think you said there are some things that are not used now?”
“Those big iron chains, and these weights here—they weighted the prisoner down with those; that’s all out of date.”
“They look rather queer and barbarous, certainly.”
He smiled.
“You may say that,” he said.
“And can you tell me how they came to be disused?”
He seemed again to check the action of turning his head round.