"Your not saying—if you can say—is just folly," interposed the sergeant. "It's the first question the magistrates will ask when you are placed before them."
Herbert looked up angrily. "Place me before the magistrates!" he echoed. "What do you mean? You will not dare to take me into custody!"
"You have been in custody this half-hour," coolly returned the sergeant.
Herbert looked terribly fierce.
"I will not submit to this indignity," he exclaimed. "I will not. Sergeant Delves, you are overstepping——"
"Look here," interrupted the sergeant, drawing something from some unseen receptacle; and Mr. Herbert, to his dismay, caught sight of a pair of handcuffs. "Don't you force me to use them," said the officer. "You are in custody, and must go before the magistrates; but now, you be a gentleman, and I'll use you as one."
"I protest upon my honour that I have had neither act nor part in this crime!" cried Herbert, in agitation. "Do you think I would stain my hand with the sin of Cain?"
"What is that on your hand?" asked the sergeant, bending forward to look more closely at Herbert's fingers.
Herbert held them out openly enough. "I was doing something last night which tore my fingers," he said. "I was trying to undo the fastenings of some wire. Sergeant Delves, I declare to you solemnly, that from the moment when my brother went to his chamber, as witnesses have stated to you, I never saw him until my father brought me down from my bed to see him lying dead."
"You drew a knife on him not many hours before, you know, Mr. Herbert!"