The full significance of his position suddenly burst upon him.  The thought of being led home a prisoner, or conveyed to the police-station handcuffed, maddened him; and the idea of being thus unjustly checked at the very outset of his independent career made him furious.  For a few moments he stood so perfectly still and quiet that the detectives were thrown slightly off their guard.  Then there was an explosion of some sort within the breast of Miles Milton.  It expended itself in a sudden impulse, which sent Redhead flat on the table among the crockery, and drove Hook-nose into the fireplace among the fire-irons.  A fat little man chanced to be standing in the door-way.  The same impulse, modified, shot that little man into the street like a cork out of a bottle, and next moment Miles was flying along the pavement at racing speed, horrified at what he had done, but utterly reckless as to what might follow!