He sat heavily.
"--the problem would be somewhat different. Of course, it would be
easy to arrange that the first person to sit down in the chair
would, by his own weight, blow himself up. But the first person
might not be the right person, you know. Do you still follow me?"
The Honorable William Linder made a remark like a fish.
"Now, we have, if you will forgive my professorial method,"
continued Average Jones, "a chair sent to a gentleman of prominence
from an anonymous source. In this chair is a charge of high
explosive and above it a glass bulb containing sulphuric acid. The
bulb, we will assume, is so safe-guarded as to resist any ordinary
shock of moving. But when this gentleman, sitting at ease in his
chair, is noticed by a trombonist, placed for that purpose In the
street, below--"
"The Dutch horn-player!" cried the politician. "Then it was him;
and I'll--"
"Only an innocent tool," interrupted Average Jones, in his turn.
"He had no comprehension of what he was doing. He didn't understand
that the vibration from his trombone on one particular note by the
slide up the scale--as in the chorus of Egypt--would shiver that
glass and set off the charge.
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