same pleasure as the other jays had when those spikes began to move
toward their eyes!'

'Oh no! no! no!' broke in Amelia hysterically. 'It is too terrible! I
can't bear to see it!--I can't! I can't!' But the American was obdurate.
'Say, Colonel,' said he, 'why not take Madame for a little promenade? I
wouldn't hurt her feelin's for the world; but now that I am here, havin'
kem eight thousand miles, wouldn't it be too hard to give up the very
experience I've been pinin' an' pantin' fur? A man can't get to feel
like canned goods every time! Me and the Judge here'll fix up this thing
in no time, an' then you'll come back, an' we'll all laugh together!'

Once more the resolution that is born of curiosity triumphed, and Amelia
stayed holding tight to my arm and shivering whilst the custodian began
to slacken slowly inch by inch the rope that held back the iron door.
Hutcheson's face was positively radiant as his eyes followed the first
movement of the spikes.

'Wall!' he said, 'I guess I've not had enjoyment like this since I left
Noo York. Bar a scrap with a French sailor at Wapping--an' that warn't
much of a picnic neither--I've not had a show fur real pleasure in this
dod-rotted Continent, where there ain't no b'ars nor no Injuns, an'
wheer nary man goes heeled. Slow there, Judge! Don't you rush this
business! I want a show for my money this game--I du!'

The custodian must have had in him some of the blood of his predecessors
in that ghastly tower, for he worked the engine with a deliberate and
excruciating slowness which after five minutes, in which the outer edge
of the door had not moved half as many inches, began to overcome Amelia.
I saw her lips whiten, and felt her hold upon my arm relax. I looked