"I will, my lord," returned Naylor, stretching out a muscular hand and taking a firm hold of the hunchback. "As a matter of fact, I know this man very well. I have been to his shop in Westminster scores of times!" And he took a step forward, as though he would move Zouche promptly out of the room. Now, as I have hinted before, the hunchback had plenty of pride, and as he felt this coarse-grained Briton attempt to drag him unceremoniously away from the table at which Lord Cuthbertson, Lord Fotheringay, and the lawyer still sat immovable and unconcerned, as though no such person as himself existed within a radius of one hundred miles of them, his rage mastered him. "I will never go, never!" he shrieked, and he whipped out a revolver and actually levelled it at the officer and fired it, but Naylor was too quick for him, and in a flash knocked the muzzle of the revolver upward. "Humph! a dangerous customer, I see," exclaimed the detective coolly. "Well, you can't be left to go as a gentleman, that's all. I must treat you as a criminal." And whipping out his handcuffs he had them snapped on Zouche's wrists in a couple of seconds. Oddly enough, what threats, persuasions, offers of bribes, actual violence had failed to win the touch of that cold steel accomplished. Personally, I have seen the same thing happen scores of times, but, to the general public, the moral power of the silent handcuff must ever rank as one of the greatest of the modern noiseless miracles. Certainly it was so in the case of the hunchback. No sooner did he find himself really captured than all his braggadocio left him--dropped from him like a moth-eaten mantle. "I give in, Lord Cuthbertson, I give in!" he cried. "Order this man to take off these absurd bracelets. I'll do as you wish--throw in my lot with the British Government. Send him away, and let us discuss the terms." The Foreign Secretary lifted his eyes lazily from his papers and pretended to yawn. "I beg your pardon," he said politely. "I was busy putting the finishing touches to a despatch. What was that you said?" "I will sell the manuscripts to the British Government. I will give you the benefit of my services as translator," repeated the hunchback. Lord Cuthbertson yawned again. "Make a note of that offer, Fotheringay, will you?" he said, turning to the earl, "and speak to me about it when I've got a little more time. At present I'm too busy to think of these things as carefully as I ought." And, rising, he nodded to Naylor, but the hunchback stood his ground. "My lord," said he warningly, "it's now or never. Don't play with me. Don't push me too far. I will be with you now, but if not now I'll be against you and your Government for ever, so be careful how you treat me."