“You shall see it,” said Two-Legs.
He put a little piece of charcoal at each end of the wire where he had cut it. Then he put out the light in the room and brought the two charcoal tips together. Then they both saw that the charcoal glowed and gave a faint light.
“Do you see that? Do you see that?” cried Two-Legs, exultantly. “I have my thunder-cloud in this little glass: there’s the lightning for you. It only shines faintly as yet, but it is easily made stronger. I can put a thousand thunder-clouds together and you shall see how bright the light becomes. I can put two thousand together and you shall see how strong the electric power is: stronger than the wind, stronger than the steam; there is not a weight it cannot raise, not a wheel it cannot turn. Look, look, I have caught the lightning and imprisoned it in this little glass! I am lord of the mighty electric spirit: he will have to serve me like the ox and the horse, like the wind and Steam!”
He ran and flung open the door. The night was past and it was morning. He shouted till his voice rang over the valley. The people heard and woke and sprang from their beds:
“Father Two-Legs is calling,” they said to one another. “Let us go to his house and hear what he has to tell us.”
They hurried from every side; and Two-Legs stood up, with his great white beard, and told them the marvellous thing that had happened:
“I have caught the electric spirit ... the mysterious, mighty spirit,” he said. “I can produce as strong a current of his immense force as I please and I can carry it whither I please, even to the end of the earth, along a thin wire. I can kindle the lightning, so that it shines calmly and gently, and put it out and kindle it again as easily as I snap my fingers.”
They listened open-mouthed and stared, while he showed them and explained it to them:
