The Face and the Mask | Page 7

a wooden leg was heard, and those in
the audience saw appear a man on crutches, with one arm in a sling and
a bandage over an eye, although he beamed upon them benevolently
with the other.
"Fellow Anarchists," said Simkins, "allow me to introduce to you
Professor Josiah P. Slivers, of the United States."
The Professor bowed and the audience applauded. As soon as the
applause began the Professor held up his unmaimed arm and said,
"Gentlemen, I beg that you will not applaud."
It seems the fashion in America to address a11 sorts and conditions of
men as "Gentlemen."
The Professor continued, "I have here some explosives so sensitive that
the slightest vibration will cause them to go off, and I therefore ask you
to listen in silence to what I have to say. I must particularly ask you
also not to stamp on the floor."
Before these remarks were concluded Simkins had slipped out by the
back entrance, and somehow his desertion seemed to have a depressing
effect upon the company, who looked upon the broken-up Professor
with eyes of wonder and apprehension.
The Professor drew towards him one of the boxes and opened the lid.
He dipped his one useful hand into the box and, holding it aloft,
allowed something which looked like wet sawdust to drip through his
fingers. "That, gentlemen," he said, with an air of the utmost contempt,
"is what is known to the world as dynamite. I have nothing at all to say
against dynamite. It has, in its day, been a very powerful medium
through which our opinions have been imparted to a listening world,
but its day is past. It is what the lumbering stage-coach is to the
locomotive, what the letter is to the telegram, what the sailing-vessel is
to the steamship. It will be my pleasant duty to-night to exhibit to you
an explosive so powerful and deadly that hereafter, having seen what it

can accomplish, you will have nothing but derision for such simple and
harmless compounds as dynamite and nitro-glycerine."
The Professor looked with kindly sympathy over his audience as he
allowed the yellow mixture to percolate slowly through his fingers back
into the box again. Ever and anon he took up a fresh handful and
repeated the action.
The Anarchists in the audience exchanged uneasy glances one with the
other.
"Yet," continued the Professor, "it will be useful for us to consider this
substance for a few moments, if but for the purpose of comparison.
Here," he said, diving his hand into another box and bringing up before
their gaze a yellow brick, "is dynamite in a compressed form. There is
enough here to wreck all this part of London, were it exploded. This
simple brick would lay St. Paul's Cathedral in ruins, so, however
antiquated dynamite may become, we must always look upon it with
respect, just as we look upon reformers of centuries ago who perished
for their opinions, even though their opinions were far behind what
ours are now. I shall take the liberty of performing some experiments
with this block of dynamite." Saying which the Professor, with his free
arm, flung the block of dynamite far down the aisle, where it fell on the
floor with a sickening thud. The audience sprang from their seats and
tumbled back one over the other. A wild shriek went up into the air, but
the Professor gazed placidly on the troubled mob below him with a
superior smile on his face. "I beg you to seat yourselves," he said, "and
for reasons which I have already explained, I trust that you will not
applaud any of my remarks. You have just now portrayed one of the
popular superstitions about dynamite, and you show by your actions
how necessary a lecture of this sort is in order that you may
comprehend thoroughly the substance with which you have to deal.
That brick is perfectly harmless, because it is frozen. Dynamite in its
frozen state will not explode--a fact well understood by miners and all
those who have to work with it, and who, as a rule, generally prefer to
blow themselves to pieces trying to thaw the substance before a fire.
Will you kindly bring that brick back to me, before it thaws out in the

heated atmosphere of this room?"
One of the men stepped gingerly forward and picked up the brick,
holding it far from his body, as he tip-toed up to the platform, where he
laid it down carefully on the desk before the Professor.
"Thank you," said the Professor, blandly.
The man drew a long breath of relief as he went back to his seat.
"That is frozen dynamite," continued the Professor, "and is, as I have
said, practically harmless. Now, it will