For the first time in the proceedings there was for a few seconds a
real silence. Then Gregory fell back in his seat, a pale wreck of a
man, and the chairman repeated, like a piece of clock-work suddenly
started again--

"The question is that Comrade Syme be elected to the post of
Thursday on the General Council."

The roar rose like the sea, the hands rose like a forest, and three
minutes afterwards Mr. Gabriel Syme, of the Secret Police Service,
was elected to the post of Thursday on the General Council of the
Anarchists of Europe.

Everyone in the room seemed to feel the tug waiting on the river,
the sword-stick and the revolver, waiting on the table. The instant
the election was ended and irrevocable, and Syme had received the
paper proving his election, they all sprang to their feet, and the
fiery groups moved and mixed in the room. Syme found himself,
somehow or other, face to face with Gregory, who still regarded him
with a stare of stunned hatred. They were silent for many minutes.

"You are a devil!" said Gregory at last.

"And you are a gentleman," said Syme with gravity.

"It was you that entrapped me," began Gregory, shaking from head
to foot, "entrapped me into--"

"Talk sense," said Syme shortly. "Into what sort of devils'
parliament have you entrapped me, if it comes to that? You made me