"Right, sir."
Almost at that moment, while the two wretched girls were being brought, shrinking and trembling, towards where the sultan was seated, one of them seemed to have suddenly realised the horrible fate which awaited her: possibly she caught her first glimpse of the flashing water, and she uttered a wild shriek that as Jerry afterwards said went through him like a knife.
"That's done it, Dick," growled Hollins in a whisper. "That's done it. I'm wound up now. Say when you're ready."
In the midst of the excitement, and every one's attention centred upon the girls, the second following her companion's example—shrieking and struggling wildly, as each was dragged towards the sultan by a couple of his followers, Beecher felt the handle of a revolver thrust into his hand, which closed upon it, and placed it in the waistband of his trousers.
The shrieks of the two unfortunate victims were now horrible, and as they were dragged close up to where the four Englishmen sat, thrilling with horror, panting with suppressed energy, they saw the girls stretch out their arms to the master whose wretched slaves they were, and mingled with their shrieks, which pierced the utter silence around, were inarticulate appeals for mercy.
The next moment the cries ceased as if a hand had been laid upon each pair of quivering lips, for Beecher suddenly sprang to his feet, shouting "Stop!" and turned to the sultan.
"Sir," he cried hoarsely, "we your guests appeal to you as Englishmen to pardon and spare these poor women, however much they have offended against you."
Every eye was fixed now upon the speaker, as he stood there bareheaded and quivering with excitement, and looking for the first time in his life, big, almost grand, his face flushed, his breast heaving, every inch an Englishman and soldier of his Queen.
"Sit down," said the sultan, smiling up at the speaker in the most imperturbable manner; and though Beecher did not see it, Hollins did: his hand stole softly to the folds of his silken sarong, where it rested upon his kris. "Sit down."
"And see this cruel murder? I cannot, sir. I appeal to you to spare their lives."