These papers could involve no mere matter of sentiment or personal honour or pride. Some colossal undertaking must be at stake. It was also obvious to Westerham that if the papers fell into strange hands the consequences must be terrible for all concerned. For the anxiety and fear on Melun's face were greater than the anxiety and fear of a man who hazards all in a great stake and thinks he has lost. Presently Melun got unsteadily out of his chair and came round the table to Westerham. “Stand away there!” he said to the two men who were guarding the baronet. “Stand away there!” The men fell back, and Melun, coming close up to Westerham, whispered in his ear: “What do you mean that ‘they are not where they were’? Do you mean the papers?” Westerham nodded. “Where are they?” Melun whispered again. “I decline to say,” said Westerham. He might well decline, for he had not the least idea. “I will make you tell me, you dog!” cried Melun. “You won't,” answered Westerham, suavely. “By Heaven!” shouted Melun, “but I will. There are more unpleasant things done in this place than you ever dreamt of in your philosophy. The times of the Inquisition are not past for some people.” “It will take a little more than you to frighten me, you cur,” said Westerham, in a low voice. Melun's face blazed with passion. He drew back a pace, and then struck Westerham heavily across the mouth. On his part Westerham did not hesitate for a moment. He lifted both his fettered hands and brought his steel-bound wrists down with a crash on Melun's head; and the captain went sprawling to the floor. “Look you here,” cried Westerham to the dumbfounded ruffians who stood watching the scene as though they were chained to their chairs. “Look you here; I will deal with men, but not with curs such as this.” He touched Melun with his boot. “You cannot deny,” he continued, purposely dropping to a certain extent into their own jargon, “that I was game. I was prepared to die, but I am not prepared to be struck by swine like this. “Why,” he went on, turning Melun's prostrate body over with his foot, “he is a liar through and through. “Did I speak the truth just now when I convicted Crow out of his own mouth? I did. I proved it. And surely Melun has now condemned himself in his turn. “Do you think that there would be all this fuss over a bundle of papers if there weren't more in the matter than he ever intended to tell you? Not a bit of it.” The men murmured angry assent, and Westerham felt that he was at last winning through. “Do you think,” he went on boldly, “that I am the kind of man who deserves to be tortured to reveal the truth? I say no; and so will you.” Again the men nodded. “This fellow Melun says that I have betrayed him and you. Let him prove it. I tell him that ‘the papers are not where they were.’ He knows where he placed them; let him go and see. I am content to abide here until he returns.” It was now the turn of the bullet-headed man to speak.