rshal 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 an execution we'll have."

"What do you propose?"

"There's a hook handy upon the ceiling. Fetch 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 stared in surprise.

"You don't say?" he asked.

The German nodded.

"What! No ways?"

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.