"Ready now?" he inquired calmly.
The boy's answer was a snarl. "No!"
"Once more!"
The thud-thudding began again, and now it had a sharp sound which the doctor instantly recognized. In a moment the boy was shaking the air with cries of such awful agony that the doctor—
"Stop!" cried the father convulsively, his face streaming with tears. "God—the boy doesn't—know! Don't torture him—like that!"
The man with the metal heart said:
"Will you tell now?"
"Don't do it father!" the boy whispered through palsied lips. But no
Capellan heard him.
The father was saying to Norbith, "I gave the whole outfit to—"
And then that crashing and smashing came to an end. The boy had fainted.