"Bandage their eyes," said Hunston.

"No; let us look upon our fate," said young Jack.

"The old Harkaway brag to the very last," said Hunston, with a sneer.

"You don't like to look a Harkaway in the face, assassin!" retorted the
boy.

"Fool!" exclaimed Hunston, "since you want it, you shall have it. Fire
at the middle first. They can have an opportunity of seeing a real man
die before their eyes. It may give them a relish for their own share to
follow."

The word was given.

"Ready! Present! Fire!"

The six rifles flashed simultaneously.

Then, as the wounded Lirico was struck, he bounded into the air and
fell back into the grave--stone dead!

Hunston stood smiling grimly, even while the very men turned sick at
the butchery they were forced to enact.

He, with fiend-like satisfaction, noticed the sickly pallor of the two
boys' faces, and it gladdened his black heart.

"They aren't quite so happy now," he muttered. "Now it is they suffer.