The doctor reached down and lifted a leather helmet from the floor and placed it gently over the doomed man's head.
"Don't do it, Farrington." Poltavo's muffled voice came painfully from behind the leather screen. "Don't! I swear I will not betray you."
Farrington made a little signal and the doctor walked to the wall and placed his hand upon a black switch.
"I will not betray you," said the man in the chair in hollow tones. "Give me a chance. I will not tell them anything that you——"
He did not speak again, for the black switch had been pressed down and death came with merciful swiftness.
They stood watching the figure. A slight quivering of the hands and then Farrington nodded and the doctor turned the switch over again.
Rapidly they unfastened the straps, and the limp thing which was once human, with a brain to think and a capacity for life and love, slipped out of the chair in an inanimate heap upon the ground.
So passed Ernesto Poltavo, an adventurer and a villain, in the prime of his life.
Farrington looked down upon the body with sombre eyes and shrugged his shoulders.