As the door rattled to a close behind them, my remaining cell-mates all dashed toward the one small window, fighting and wrestling with one another to gain a favorable position. And all the while, from the lips of them all, there issued the dreariest, most doleful wails that ever grated on my ears.
Noting their excitement, and not wishing to be left behind if there was anything to see, I too darted toward the window. And lo and behold!—the effect was magical! Avoiding contact with me as though I were a plague-bearer, the chalk-faces all made way before my coming, and, whimpering with fear, retreated to the further end of the room. Thus I was left in undisputed possession of the view!
It was a strange sight that I beheld as I peered out between the iron bars—a sight in some ways more appalling than even the clash of the land-battleships. Glancing out into the broad, high corridor just outside our prison, I saw my late cell-mate being borne away to the opposite wall, where he was tied against a stone column shaped like a gallows. Then, while a group of about fifty chalk-faces gathered around, gibbering and gesticulating, one of the soldiers uttered what sounded like a warning cry, at which the spectators all withdrew to a respectable distance, and a curious-looking machine was wheeled on to the scene.
Not until its brown cloth cover had been removed, and it had been put into operation, could I guess its nature. Although it rested, like a camera, on an iron tripod, it was unlike any other machine I had ever observed; it consisted, in the main, of a series of prisms and lenses, of various shapes and colors, some of them transparent and but a few inches across, but the foremost of them rounded in form, stained a deep opaque blue, and fully a yard in diameter. Behind the lenses, there were numbers of bulbs and wires, and of battery-like tubes; while the whole instrument, when in operation, made a constant whirring sound, a little like a motion picture projector.
What interested me most of all, however, was the weird light which, issuing from the foremost lens, was not scattered or diffused like most rays, but drew sharply to a focus twenty or twenty-five yards ahead of the machine, making a long cone of the most uncanny violet illumination I had ever seen.
Even now, I was not certain of the dread purpose of the apparatus. But from the hush of awe-stricken expectancy that had come over the spectators, I surmised that something extraordinary was in store. Nor was I to be disappointed. One of the soldiers, operating the machine, turned the violet light-rays on and off two or three times as if for practice, then gradually moved the instrument so that it pointed directly toward the wretch tied against the stone column.
There followed a moment of silence, during which the operator looked through a little glass tube, as if to make sure of his position and distance; then he raised his black-gloved hand in an urgent gesture, and the silence became more absolute than ever, except for a moaning sound from the tied man; then he took out a little instrument like a watch and gazed at it intently, as if keeping careful count of the time....
The next instant, while I still wondered what was to happen, I heard the low regular whirring of the machine. The cone of violet light shot out, its focus directly at the prisoner's heart. Then the man sagged and would have fallen except for the ropes that held him. A strangled cry issued from his throat; dark foam appeared upon his lips; his face, for an instant, became ghastly purplish red, then turned gray and colorless....
Three or four seconds, and all was over. The victim gave a last convulsive quiver; the violet light no longer played; the whirring sound had ceased. But one of the soldiers, whistling a tune, cut the lifeless form free; and the people, with a loud babbling chatter, surged back and forth across the gallery as if nothing had occurred.