ONE:"You must understand," resumed the Clockwork man, making a rather painful effort to fold his arms and look natural, "you must understand��click��click��that it is difficult for me to carry on conversation in this manner. Not only are my speech centres rather disordered��G-r-r-r-r-r-r��but I am not really accustomed to expressing my thoughts[Pg 143] in this way (here there was a loud spinning noise, like a sewing machine, and rising to a rapid crescendo). My brain is��so��constituted that action��except in a multiform world��is bound to be somewhat spasmodic��Pfft��Pfft��Pfft. In fact��Pfft��it is only��Pfft��because I am in such a hope��hope��hopeless condition that I am able to converse with you at all.""Just to think," Fred exclaimed, "when we left San Francisco, we steered for this mountain, five thousand miles away, and here it is, right before us. Navigation is a wonderful science, and no mistake." TWO:THREE:"The Chinese don't seem to have any nerves compared with what we have. They do not suffer so much as we do under tortures, and this is perhaps one of the reasons why they are so much more cruel than the people of Europe and America. For example, it would nearly kill a European to travel a week in carts such as we saw on the road from Tien-tsin to Pekin. The Chinese don't seem to mind it at all; and the best proof that they do not is that they have never invented any better or more comfortable way of travelling, or tried to improve their roads. And it is the same with their punishments in the courts. They don't care much for whippings, though it is not at all probable that they like them, and the only things that they appear to fear very much are the punishments that are prolonged. There are a good many of these, and I will tell you about some of the most prominent and best known.