“Um.”
“Would they like to torture those young boys?”
“Um.”
“Would they like to apply the water cure and the red-hot needles?”
“Um.”
“And pull out fingernails?”
“Um.”
The old Chinaman never changed expression.
In spite of their courageous spirits, the boys shivered. Mr. Temple thought only of the boys, not of himself. Would these scoundrels really torture them? It was unbelievable. Yet if they should——
“Look here,” he said gruffly, “quit this nonsense. This is the twentieth century, and such things are not done. We are not children to be frightened by such talk.”