I used to be the leading practitioner of Los Amigos. Of course,
everyone has heard of the great electrical generating gear there. The
town is wide spread, and there are dozens of little townlets and
villages all round, which receive their supply from the same centre, so
that the works are on a very large scale. The Los Amigos folk say that
they are the largest upon earth, but then we claim that for everything
in Los Amigos except the gaol and the death-rate. Those are said to be
the smallest.
Now, with so fine an electrical supply, it seemed to be a sinful waste
of hemp that the Los Amigos criminals should perish in the
old-fashioned manner. And then came the news of the eleotrocutions in
the East, and how the results had not after all been so instantaneous
as had been hoped. The Western Engineers raised their eyebrows when
they read of the puny shocks by which these men had perished, and they
vowed in Los Amigos that when an irreclaimable came their way he should
be dealt handsomely by, and have the run of all the big dynamos. There
should be no reserve, said the engineers, but he should have all that
they had got. And what the result of that would be none could predict,
save that it must be absolutely blasting and deadly. Never before had
a man been so charged with electricity as they would charge him. He
was to be smitten by the essence of ten thunderbolts. Some prophesied
combustion, and some disintegration and disappearance. They were
waiting eagerly to settle the question by actual demonstration, and it
was just at that moment that Duncan Warner came that way.
Warner had been wanted by the law, and by nobody else, for many years.
Desperado, murderer, train robber and road agent, he was a man beyond
the pale of human pity. He had deserved a dozen deaths, and the Los
Amigos folk grudged him so gaudy a one as that. He seemed to feel
himself to be unworthy of it, for he made two frenzied attempts at
escape. He was a powerful, muscular man, with a lion head, tangled
black locks, and a sweeping beard which covered his broad chest. When
he was tried, there was no finer head in all the crowded court. It's
no new thing to find the best face looking from the dock. But his good
looks could not balance his bad deeds. His advocate did all he knew,
but the cards lay against him, and Duncan Warner was handed over to the
mercy of the big Los Amigos dynamos.
I was there at the committee meeting when the matter was discussed.
The town council had chosen four experts to look after the
arrangements. Three of them were admirable. There was Joseph
M'Conner, the very man who had designed the dynamos, and there was
Joshua Westmacott, the chairman of the Los Amigos Electrical Supply
Company, Limited. Then there was myself as the chief medical man, and
lastly an old German of the name of Peter Stulpnagel. The Germans were
a strong body at Los Amigos, and they all voted for their man. That
was how he got on the committee. It was said that he had been a
wonderful electrician at home, and he was eternally working with wires
and insulators and Leyden jars; but, as he never seemed to get any
further, or to have any results worth publishing he came at last to be
regarded as a harmless crank, who had made science his hobby. We three
practical men smiled when we heard that he had been elected as our
colleague, and at the meeting we fixed it all up very nicely among
ourselves without much thought of the old fellow who sat with his ears
scooped forward in his hands, for he was a trifle hard of hearing,
taking no more part in the proceedings than the gentlemen of the press
who scribbled their notes on the back benches.
We did not take long to settle it all. In New York a strength of some
two thousand volts had been used, and death had not been instantaneous.
Evidently their shock had been too weak. Los Amigos should not fall
into that error. The charge should be six times greater, and
therefore, of course, it would be six times more effective. Nothing
could possibly be more logical. The whole concentrated force of the
great dynamos should be employed on Duncan Warner.
So we three settled it, and had already risen to break up the meeting,
when our silent companion opened his month for the first time.
"Gentlemen," said he, "you appear to me to show an extraordinary
ignorance upon the subject of electricity. You have not mastered the
first principles of its actions upon a human being."
The committee was about to break into an angry reply to this brusque
comment, but the chairman of the Electrical Company tapped his forehead
to claim its indulgence for the crankiness of the speaker.
"Pray tell us, sir," said he, with an ironical smile, "what is there in
our conclusions with which you find fault?"
"With your assumption that a large dose of electricity will merely
increase the effect of a small dose. Do you not think it possible that
it might have an entirely different result? Do you know anything, by
actual experiment, of the effect of such powerful shocks?"
"We know it by analogy," said the chairman, pompously. "All drugs
increase their effect when they increase their dose; for example--for
example----"
"Whisky," said Joseph M'Connor.
"Quite so. Whisky. You see it there."
Peter Stulpnagel smiled and shook his head.
"Your argument is not very good," said he. "When I used to take
whisky, I used to find that one glass would excite me, but that six
would send me to sleep, which is just the opposite. Now, suppose that
electricity were to act in just the opposite way also, what then?"
We three practical men burst out laughing. We had known that our
colleague was queer, but we never had thought that he would be as queer
as this.
"What then?" repeated Philip Stulpnagel.
"We'll take our chances," said the chairman.
"Pray consider," said Peter, "that workmen who have touched the wires,
and who have received shocks of only a few hundred volts, have died
instantly. The fact is well known. And yet when a much greater force
was used upon a criminal at New York, the man struggled for some little
time. Do you not clearly see that the smaller dose is the more deadly?"
"I think, gentlemen, that this discussion has been carried on quite
long enough," said the chairman, rising again. "The point, I take it,
has already been decided by the majority of the committee, and Duncan
Warner shall be electrocuted on Tuesday by the full strength of the Los
Amigos dynamos. Is it not so?"
"I agree," said Joseph M'Connor.
"I agree," said I.
"And I protest," said Peter Stulpnagel.
"Then the motion is carried, and your protest will be duly entered in
the minutes," said the chairman, and so the sitting was dissolved.
The attendance at the electrocution was a very small one. We four
members of the committee were, of course, present with the executioner,
who was to act under their orders. The others were the United States
Marshal, the governor of the gaol, the chaplain, and three members of
the press. The room was a small brick chamber, forming an outhouse to
the Central Electrical station. It had been used as a laundry, and had
an oven and copper at one side, but no other furniture save a single
chair for the condemned man. A metal plate for his feet was placed in
front of it, to which ran a thick, insulated wire. Above, another wire
depended from the ceiling, which could be connected with a small
metallic rod projecting from a cap which was to be placed upon his
head. When this connection was established Duncan Warner's hour was
come.
There was a solemn hush as we waited for the coming of the prisoner.
The practical engineers looked a little pale, and fidgeted nervously
with the wires. Even the hardened Marshal was ill at ease, for a mere
hanging was one thing, and this blasting of flesh and blood a very
different one. As to the pressmen, their faces were whiter than the
sheets which lay before them. The only man who appeared to feel none
of the influence of these preparations was the little German crank, who
strolled from one to the other with a smile on his lips and mischief in
his eyes. More than once he even went so far as to burst into a shout
of laughter, until the chaplain sternly rebuked him for his ill-timed
levity.
"How can you so far forget yourself, Mr. Stulpnagel," said he, "as to
jest in the presence of death?"
But the German was quite unabashed.
"If I were in the presence of death I should not jest," said he, "but
since I am not I may do what I choose."
This flippant reply was about to draw another and a sterner reproof
from the chaplain, when the door was swung open and two warders entered
leading Duncan Warner between them. He glanced round him with a set
face, stepped resolutely forward, and seated himself upon the chair.
"Touch her off!" said he.
It was barbarous to keep him in suspense. The chaplain murmured a few
words in his ear, the attendant placed the cap upon his head, and then,
while we all held our breath, the wire and the metal were brought in
contact.
"Great Scott!" shouted Duncan Warner.
He had bounded in his chair as the frightful shock crashed through his
system. But he was not dead. On the contrary, his eyes gleamed far
more brightly than they had done before. There was only one change,
but it was a singular one. The black had passed from his hair and
beard as the shadow passes from a landscape. They were both as white
as snow. And yet there was no other sign of decay. His skin was
smooth and plump and lustrous as a child's.
The Marshal looked at the committee with a reproachful eye.
"There seems to be some hitch here, gentlemen," said he.
We three practical men looked at each other.
Peter Stulpnagel smiled pensively.
"I think that another one should do it," said I.
Again the connection was made, and again Duncan Warner sprang in his
chair and shouted, but, indeed, were it not that he still remained in
the chair none of us would have recognised him. His hair and his beard
had shredded off in an instant, and the room looked like a barber's
shop on a Saturday night. There he sat, his eyes still shining, his
skin radiant with the glow of perfect health, but with a scalp as bald
as a Dutch cheese, and a chin without so much as a trace of down. He
began to revolve one of his arms, slowly and doubtfully at first, but
with more confidence as he went on.
"That jint," said he, "has puzzled half the doctors on the Pacific
Slope. It's as good as new, and as limber as a hickory twig."
"You are feeling pretty well?" asked the old German.
"Never better in my life," said Duncan Warner cheerily.
The situation was a painful one. The Marshal glared at the committee.
Peter Stulpnagel grinned and rubbed his hands. The engineers scratched
their heads. The bald-headed prisoner revolved his arm and looked
pleased.
"I think that one more shock----" began the chairman.
"No, sir," said the Marshal "we've had foolery enough for one morning.
We are here for an execution, and a execution we'll have."
"What do you propose?"
"There's a hook handy upon the ceiling. Fetch in a rope, and we'll
soon set this matter straight."
There was another awkward delay while the warders departed for the
cord. Peter Stulpnagel bent over Duncan Warner, and whispered
something in his ear. The desperado started in surprise.
"You don't say?" he asked.
The German nodded.
"What! Noways?"
Peter shook his head, and the two began to laugh as though they shared
some huge joke between them.
The rope was brought, and the Marshal himself slipped the noose over
the criminal's neck. Then the two warders, the assistant and he swung
their victim into the air. For half an hour he hung--a dreadful
sight--from the ceiling. Then in solemn silence they lowered him down,
and one of the warders went out to order the shell to be brought round.
But as he touched ground again what was our amazement when Duncan
Warner put his hands up to his neck, loosened the noose, and took a
long, deep breath.
"Paul Jefferson's sale is goin' well," he remarked, "I could see the
crowd from up yonder," and he nodded at the hook in the ceiling.
"Up with him again!" shouted the Marshal, "we'll get the life out of
him somehow."
In an instant the victim was up at the hook once more.
They kept him there for an hour, but when he came down he was perfectly
garrulous.
"Old man Plunket goes too much to the Arcady Saloon," said he. "Three
times he's been there in an hour; and him with a family. Old man
Plunket would do well to swear off."
It was monstrous and incredible, but there it was. There was no
getting round it. The man was there talking when he ought to have been
dead. We all sat staring in amazement, but United States Marshal
Carpenter was not a man to be euchred so easily. He motioned the
others to one side, so that the prisoner was left standing alone.
"Duncan Warner," said he, slowly, "you are here to play your part, and
I am here to play mine. Your game is to live if you can, and my game
is to carry out the sentence of the law. You've beat us on
electricity. I'll give you one there. And you've beat us on hanging,
for you seem to thrive on it. But it's my turn to beat you now, for my
duty has to be done."
He pulled a six-shooter from his coat as he spoke, and fired all the
shots through the body of the prisoner. The room was so filled with
smoke that we could see nothing, but when it cleared the prisoner was
still standing there, looking down in disgust at the front of his coat.
"Coats must be cheap where you come from," said he. "Thirty dollars it
cost me, and look at it now. The six holes in front are bad enough,
but four of the balls have passed out, and a pretty state the back must
be in."
The Marshal's revolver fell from his hand, and he dropped his arms to
his sides, a beaten man.
"Maybe some of you gentlemen can tell me what this means," said he,
looking helplessly at the committee.
Peter Stulpnagel took a step forward.
"I'll tell you all about it," said he.
"You seem to be the only person who knows anything."
"I <i>am</i> the only person who knows anything. I should have warned these
gentlemen; but, as they would not listen to me, I have allowed them to
learn by experience. What you have done with your electricity is that
you have increased this man's vitality until he can defy death for
centuries."
"Centuries!"
"Yes, it will take the wear of hundreds of years to exhaust the
enormous nervous energy with which you have drenched him. Electricity
is life, and you have charged him with it to the utmost. Perhaps in
fifty years you might execute him, but I am not sanguine about it."
"Great Scott! What shall I do with him?" cried the unhappy Marshal.
Peter Stulpnagel shrugged his shoulders.
"It seems to me that it does not much matter what you do with him now,"
said he.
"Maybe we could drain the electricity out of him again. Suppose we
hang him up by the heels?"
"No, no, it's out of the question."
"Well, well, he shall do no more mischief in Los Amigos, anyhow," said
the Marshal, with decision. "He shall go into the new gaol. The
prison will wear him out."
"On the contrary," said Peter Stulpnagel, "I think that it is much more
probable that he will wear out the prison."
It was rather a fiasco and for years we didn't talk more about it than
we could help, but it's no secret now and I thought you might like to
jot down the facts in your case-book.