Through various methods of interrogation, including telepathy (thought projections), visual projections (on a giant wall behind the subject), painful traumatic hypnosis (physical/mental torture), or verbally-spoken words, they gained information.The 'lost' film masterpiece is a dark study of the oppressive forces that decay and corrupt three people - a simple, uneducated former miner and dentist (McTeague) in turn of the century San Francisco, his miserly, vulgar and pathological wife (Trina), and their mutual friend and McTeague's ultimate nemesis (Marcus) - all are caught up by their squalid, debased passion, compulsion and greed for gold.Back in the saloon, the bartender informs Calloway that a new squatter has arrived in town and he replies: "Oh, a new sodbuster, huh? I thought I smelled pigs.Ryan intervened, grabbed a gun and killed Patrick Miller (as his brother looked on) and a few others as they fled.