And Mr. Head answered glibly enough, "That's
quite correct, sir. There is evidently nothing to be got
out of her. As you yourself said, sir, not long ago,
this old woman has only been a tool."

The two policemen were now walking one each side
of him, and it seemed to Alfred Head as if he were
being hustled along towards the hall where there generally
stood, widely open, the doors leading out on to
the steps to the Market Place.

He told himself that he would be very glad to get
out into the open air and collect his thoughts. He did
not believe that his old fellow-countrywoman would, to
use a vulgar English colloquialism, "give him away."
But still, he would not feel quite at ease till she was
safely deported and out of the way.

The passage was rather a long one, and he began
to feel a curious, nervous craving to reach the end of it --
to be, that is, out in the hall.

But just before they reached the end of the passage
the men about him closed round Alfred Head. He
felt himself seized, it seemed to him from every side,
not roughly, but with a terribly strong muscular grip.

"What is this?" he cried in a loud voice. Even as
he spoke, he wondered if he could be dreaming -- if this
was the horrible after effect of the strain he had just
gone through.

For a moment only he struggled, and then, suddenly,
he submitted. He knew what it was he wished to save;
it was the watch chain to which were attached the two
keys of the safe in his bedroom. He wore them
among a bunch of old-fashioned Georgian seals which
he had acquired in the way of business, and he had had
the keys gilt, turned to a dull gold colour, to match the

[[350]]

p349 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p350w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p351

v?