slating, he continued: "You had far better consent, for if you do
not he will most certainly put you all to death."

The unhappy prisoners looked at each other in despair. The two Emirs
stood gravely watching them.

"For my part," said Cochrane, "I had as soon die now as be a slave in
Khartoum!"

"What do you say, Norah?" asked Belmont.

"If we die together, John, I don't think I shall be afraid."

"It is absurd that I should die for that in which I have never had
belief," said Fardet. "And yet it is not possible for the honour of a
Frenchman that he should be converted in this fashion." He drew himself
up, with his wounded wrist stuck into the front of his jacket, "_Je suis
Chretien. J'y reste,_" he cried, a gallant falsehood in each sentence.

"What do you say, Mr. Stephens?" asked Mansoor, in a beseeching voice.
"If one of you would change, it might place them in a good humour. I
implore you that you do what they ask."

"No, I can't," said the lawyer, quietly.

"Well then, you, Miss Sadie? You, Miss Adams? It is only just to say it
once, and you will be saved."

"Oh, Auntie, do you think we might?" whimpered the frightened girl.
"Would it be so very wrong if we said it?"

The old lady threw her arms round her.

"No, no, my own dear little Sadie," she whispered. "You'll be strong!
You would just hate yourself for ever after. Keep your grip of me, dear,
and pray if you find your strength is leaving you. Don't forget that
your old aunt Eliza has you all the time by the hand."

For an instant they were heroic, this line of dishevelled, bedraggled
pleasure-seekers. They were all looking Death in the face, and the
closer they looked the less they feared him. They were conscious rather
of a feeling of curiosity, together with the nervous tingling with which
one approaches a dentist's chair. The dragoman made a motion of
his hands and shoulders, as one who has tried and failed. The Emir
Abderrahman said something to a negro, who hurried away.

"What does he want a scissors for?" asked the Colonel.

"He is going to hurt the women," said Mansoor, with the same gesture of
impotence.

A cold chill fell upon them all. They stared about them in helpless
horror. Death in the abstract was one thing, but these insufferable
details were another. Each had been braced to endure any evil in his own
person, but their hearts were still soft for each other. The women said
nothing, but the men were all buzzing together.