"Arthur Conan Doyle - The Los Amigos Fiasco" - читать интересную книгу автора (Doyle Arthur Conan)

The Los Amigos Fiasco
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle



Editor's Notes by Blake Linton Wilfong
Published in 1892, this tale is a readable and humorous predecessor
to the modern comic book superhero "origin" story. It warns us that even
learned men of science may jump to unwarranted conclusions, or fail to
recognize the importance of their own research. Ironically, the narrator
and his "admirable" associates are blind to the incredible value of their
discovery--deeming it a "fiasco" in their narrowminded view.
The story raises more questions than it answers, and begs for
sequels. Writing them could make a wonderful class project. Will the
villain's sentence be commuted to life imprisonment? Can he use his unique
gift to engineer an escape? Might this miracle reform him? What if the
Marshal orders him buried alive, embedded in concrete, or cut to bits?
Would such a punishment be "cruel and unusual"? What happens when the
world discovers this remarkable application of electricity? Could Duncan
Warner become a national hero? Might he receive a pardon? Used
beneficially, how might this discovery affect our society and economy?
What happens to Social Security? How about overpopulation? Marriage?
The possibilities are endless. But one thing is certain: don't try
this at home!



I used to be the leadingpractitioner of Los Amigos. Of course, everyone has
heard of the great electrical generating gear there. The town is widespread, and
there are dozens of little townlets and villages all around, which receive their
supply from the same center, so the works are on a very large scale. The Los
Amigos folk say they are the largest on earth, but then we claim that for
everything in Los Amigos except the jail and the death-rate. Those are said to
be the smallest.
Now, with so fine an electrical supply, it seemed to be a sinful waste of hemp
that the Los Amigos criminals should perish in the old-fashioned manner. And
then came news of the electrocutions in the East, and how the results had not
after all been so instantaneous as had been hoped. The Western Engineers raised
their eyebrows when they read of the puny shocks by which these men had
perished, and they vowed in Los Amigos that when an irreclaimable came their way
he should be dealt handsomely by, and have the run of all the big dynamos. There
should be no reserve, said the engineers, but he should have all that they had
got. And what the result of that would be none could predict, save that it must
be absolutely blasting and deadly. Never before had a man been so charged with
electricity as they would charge him. He was to be smitten by the essence of ten
thunderbolts. Some prophesied combustion, and some disintegration and
disappearance. They were waiting eagerly to settle the question by actual
demonstration, and it was just at that moment that Duncan Warner came that way.
Warner had been wanted by the law, and by nobody else, for many years.
Desperado, murderer, train robber and road agent, he was a man beyond the pale