One can only die once. And
once is enough . . . No, don't--not yet ! Give me a minute till I
tell you something; then you can open the gates. You will have a long
time to live--yes, yes, you are the kind that live long. Well, a minute
or two is not much to ask. If you want to murder, you will open the
gates at once; but if it is punishment, if you are an executioner, you
will give me time to pray."
Jean Jacques did not soften. His voice was harsh and grim. "Well, get
on with your praying, but don't talk. You are going to die," he added,
his hands gripping the lever tighter.
The master-carpenter had had the true inspiration in his hour of danger.
He had touched his appeal with logic, he had offered an argument. Jean
Jacques was a logician, a philosopher! That point made about the
difference between a murder and an execution was a good one. Beside it
was an acknowledgment, by inference, from his victim, that he was getting
what he deserved.
"Pray quick and have it over, pig of an adulterer!" added Jean Jacques.
The master-carpenter raised a protesting hand. "There you are
mistaken; but it is no matter. At the end of to-day I would have been
an adulterer, if you hadn't found out.
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