"Replace the old seat," ordered the major, "and let us make sure of
this."
Ready hands at once grasped it, and, with some effort, I own, drew
it carefully back into position.
"You see!" quoth Durbin.
We did.
"Devilish!" came from the major's lips. Then with a glance at the
ball which, pushed aside by the seat, now hung over its edge a foot
or so from the floor, he added briskly: "The ball has fallen to the
full length of the cord. If it were drawn up a little - "
"Wait," I eagerly interposed. "Let me see what I can do with it."
And I dashed back upstairs and into the closet of "The Colonel's Own."
With a single peep down to see if they were still on the watch, I
seized the handle whose position I had made sure of when searching
for the spring, and began to turn; when instantly - so quick was
the response - the long cord stiffened and I saw the ball rise into
sight above the settle top.
"Stop!" called out the major. "Let go and press the spring again."
I hastened to obey and, though the back of the settle hid the result
from me, I judged from the look and attitude of those below that
the old colonel's calculations had been made with great exactness,
and that the one comfortable seat on the rude and cumbersome bench
had been so placed that this leaden weight in descending would at
the chosen moment strike the head of him who sat there, inflicting
death.
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