"I never kill anybody when I chop their heads off."
“Oh, that’s another question entirely,” said the Executioner. “I never kill anybody when I chop their heads off. It would be so cruel; besides, that old-fashioned way is so ordinary. I am the Executioner Extraordinary, you know.”
“Well, how on earth do you execute people, then, if you don’t kill them?” demanded Dick.
“Oh, by a new method, which I have invented myself,” declared the Executioner. “I call it execution by proxy. I just make an effigy.”
“What’s that?” inquired Marjorie.
“Don’t interrupt,” said Dick. “Guy Fawkes is an effigy, you know—an old stuffed thing, with a mask on. Go on, please.”
“Well, then,” continued the Executioner, “having made an effigy, as near like my subject as possible, I just chop its head off, and there is an end of the matter.”
He looked around at the company, and smiled triumphantly.