led 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 mouth 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