Take
him back to the Mousetrap; he shall stay there until he chooses to
speak."
With this unfair threat, which was tantamount to a sentence of
unlimited imprisonment, the judge dismissed his prisoner.
Gascoigne was marched back to the cab; the police-agents ordered him
to re-enter it; one of them took his seat by his side as before, the
other remounted the box. Then the cab started on its journey back to
the Prefecture.
Gascoigne, silent, pre-occupied, and outwardly calm, was yet inwardly
consumed with a fierce though impotent rage. He was indignant at the
shameful treatment he had received. To be arraigned as a criminal
prematurely, his guilt taken for granted on the testimony of unseen
witnesses whose evidence he had no chance of rebutting--all this, so
intolerable to the spirit of British justice, revolted him and
outraged his sense of fair play.
Yet what could he do? He was without redress. They had denied him his
right of appeal to his ambassador; he was forbidden to communicate
with his friends. There seemed no hope for him, no chance of justice,
no loophole of escape.
Stay! Escape?
As the thought flashed quickly across his brain it lingered, taking
practical shape. Surely it was worth his while to make an effort, to
strike one bold blow for liberty now, before it was too late!
He quickly cast up the chances for and against.
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