"I tell you it came to me like a cold shock and turned me faint and giddy. As I glanced at my companion I saw that he was ghastly as myself. What use was life to us under such conditions! And the fiends were equal to the cruelty of getting us to consent to this operation and then detaining us afterwards. We should be a mockery among them and a warning to others.
"There was no reason to discuss this defined cruelty, this vile offer. We glanced at each other and shook our heads. Far better death than this. We knew how to die; we could have drawn our revolvers and shot each other then and there. But we did not. While there was life there was hope."
CHAPTER XL THE IRON CAGE
Tchigorsky made a long pause before he resumed his story. His nerves appeared to require composing. It was impossible to shake off the horror of the past. At length he went on again.
"I saw the cruel light flame into the eyes of the princess; I saw that she was pleased and yet sorry to learn our decision. She gave a sign and we were brought nearer to her.
"'You understand what your refusal means!' she said. 'You have been here long enough to know how carefully our secrets are guarded and also how we punish those who try to read them. Where are those scripts?'
"We had no scripts and I said so. As a matter of fact, such formulæ and papers as we had managed to become possessed of had been smuggled beyond Lassa to Ralph Ravenspur's servant, Elphick, who had conveyed them to a place of safety. But my statement was without effect.
"'Strip them,' she said, 'and put them in the baths.'