Lim Ho uttered a fearful yell at these terrible words.
“Mercy! mercy!” he moaned.
“—But that would take too much time,” continued Ardjan, who had by this time regained his composure. “We might get the police upon us before you were quite finished and that would spoil the game— No, I have given up that idea. You shall undergo the ‘hoekoem kamadoog.’ The same punishment, you remember, Lim Ho, that you gave me; and yet I had committed no fault whatever, and the kandjeng toean there thought it right to leave your outrageous crime unpunished. No, you must not be able to say that I am more barbarous than you.”
“Mercy! Mercy!” cried both the wretched men.
“No! no! no pity!” rejoined Ardjan.
Then, with a signal to one of his mates, he continued:
“Strip them and take them outside!”
That order was carried out literally and in a very few minutes. The fine light-blue coat was rent from the Resident’s back, his trousers followed and his shirt; and torn to ribbons they soon lay on the dirty floor of the cabin—even the Virtus nobilitat was trampled under foot.
Lim Ho underwent the same rough operation, and then both men stood there naked before their pitiless judges. Then their hands were tied behind their backs and the wretched creatures were simply pitched down the rude steps.
Ardjan reminded Lim Ho of the glorious fun he had eight months ago when the two Chinamen and himself were similarly treated.