Humbled, degraded, though he was, these words of hope sent the blood coursing through his veins wildly.
Saved!
Was it possible?
Young Jack stepped out of the circle and approached the miserable wretch.
"When we last stood face to face, and when you ordered the Greek brigands to fire on us, Hunston, I told you that this would come about."
Hunston shrank affrightedly before the lad.
"I told you, Hunston," continued young Jack, "that the time would come when you would grovel in the dirt and beg your life from my father. That time has come, you see. Like the miserable cur that you are, you grovel and beg and pray in a way that I would never condescend to do to you. You have tasted all the horrors of anticipation, and that is worse than death itself. Now, perhaps, you know what I and my comrade Harry felt when you condemned us to death."
"We told you," added Harry Girdwood quietly, "that it would come home to you; it has."
During the foregoing, Hunston began to realise the truth.
They lived.