"Only for a day or two, at the last. We were watching him before his knee-cap snapped. He could not have gotten in his report."
These were old matters. Romney was troubled about the woman, and burned with the peril of the man before him.
"Perhaps they do not want you," he said.
"Our enemy is in this house," the Hunchback answered. "I shall not be allowed to leave. At least, not to go far—"
"Do you think you would be molested if you walked out now—with Moira Kelvin and me?"
Nifton Bend seemed thinking aloud:
"They may have but one agent working here, but ten men, one after another, would die gladly for my life. They are not afraid. If it is not this tea, it will be another way and soon.
"They will watch.... But we have touched the vision. The young men will carry it through. What are three lives compared to starting the races of the world into a new wisdom, a new comeliness?"
"While you live, you are Young China—and what of the woman?"
"Ah, don't, Romney—"