“Enright, the cashier, is out of town and they want you to come down and open the vault and see if anything is gone. Oh, isn’t it awful?
“Amos, why don’t you answer?”
The Explosive Gentleman
by J. J. Stagg
I
The steak was ordered well done and the waiter served it rare. This incident gave the initial impetus to a most terrible catastrophe. That so small a matter could lead to such appalling results was due entirely to the character and temperament of Ralph Kremp.
That young man was of the hyperneurotic, tempestuous type. That is, he was easily excitable and given to acting on impulse rather than on reason. Little provocation was needed to drive him into a rage. His temper once aroused, soon got beyond his control and frequently led him into deeds of passion and even violence. His anger at times was sustained through protracted periods, a feature which sometimes induced those with whom he came in contact on such occasions to doubt his sanity.
The affair in the restaurant was characteristic. Kremp made a caustic remark concerning the waiter’s attentiveness. The waiter who was an extra, and indifferent to the prospect of losing his job, commented slurringly on the fastidiousness of diners who “couldn’t tell a sirloin steak from an oyster fry anyway.”
A less combative person would probably have reported the waiter to the management. Ralph Kremp began a spirited denunciation and in his excitement he rose from his chair. The waiter a bit frightened, put out a hand as in a calming gesture. His movement was a trifle too hurried and forceful. He had the ill-fortune to touch Kremp on the chest while he was slightly off balance. The light push was sufficient to upset Kremp altogether and to topple him back into his chair. It was a ludicrous fall and caused several Other diners to laugh.
That was the spark which ignited the consuming flame of Kremp’s fury. He seized a heavy water tumbler and hurled it at the waiter. The aim was a trifle high. The glass tore a piece from the waiter’s scalp. A few women screamed, several men jumped up and other waiters came running from different directions.
Kremp threw himself in a low tackle at the object of his wrath. They hit the floor together and rolled around. Fists, elbows, knees and feet were used as weapons. A table was overturned. The struggle continued beneath the debris.
The waiter eventually fought himself free. He staggered to his feet and retreated. Kremp attempted to renew the assault but was set upon by several diners and restaurant employees. With a madman’s strength he tried to fight them off. Before he was finally subdued, two waiters and three diners bore unmistakable marks of severe maltreatment. In the confusion someone had telephoned to the police. Kremp and the waiter were placed under arrest.
At the police station Kremp affected great indignation and was insulting in his manner and language to the lieutenant. He claimed to be connected with one of the best families in the city. He demanded the privilege of calling up Mr. Walter Boyer on the phone. Walter Boyer, he bragged, was his cousin and he had pull enough to break any man on the force. None of the officers appeared to worry any over the threat of being broken. Nevertheless the mention of Boyer’s name did create something of a stir. The Boyers were shipbuilders, multi-millionaires and for several generations prominent in the social and political life of the city.
Owing to Kremp’s extreme nervousness and agitation, he could not control his voice. He was finally compelled to request the lieutenant to speak for him.
The lieutenant spoke for some five minutes and then listened for some twenty seconds. Then turning to Kremp, he said:
“Mr. Boyer asked me to tell you that he thinks you are a lunatic and that he has tired of helping you out of your foolish scrapes.”
Kremp was found guilty of disorderly conduct and sentenced to six months. Thus his exaggerated ego was humiliated beyond forgetting or forgiving. He suffered all the persecutory delusions of a madman. He imagined the Boyer family to be the central moving figure in the conspiracy against him. Every day he hated the Boyers more till at length he could think of nothing but revenge.
And in his anger and hate he accomplished that which in his saner moments had been beyond him. His entire character seemed to change. Formerly irritable and irascible, he now became patient and forbearing. This change was his first step in his yet indefinite plan for vengeance.
Kremp’s mother had been the sister of the older Boyer. After she died Boyer’s sons and Kremp were the only blood relatives.
Old Mr. Boyer accepted Kremp’s postures of repentance as being sincere. After Kremp had behaved himself for three months after his release, Boyer offered him a clerical position. When Kremp made good at the work, the old gentleman again invited his nephew to his home. It was then that Kremp’s criminal plans began to assume a definite outline.
He plotted with a madman’s cunning and patience. Scheme after scheme was discarded because it was not safe enough or not cruel enough. And several ideas were dismissed because they were not inclusive. It would have given him no satisfaction to hurt one of the boys. His feud was with the family.
It came to him at last — what he considered an inspiration. He realized that a set of circumstances could be utilized in a crime of a sweeping, all-destructive nature. With one stroke he could annihilate the entire Boyer family. Besides being emotionally gratifying, it would also be a profitable venture. If the Boyer family were destroyed, he, as the only blood relative, would inherit the family fortune of over twenty million.
This is the scene which had become impressed on Kremp’s mind: The elder Boyer was an old-fashioned gentleman and had retained many of the customs and habits of his parents. Among his idiosyncrasies was the one of using candle lights. In the music room four silver candlesticks ornamented the mantelpiece. Red candles, about an inch in diameter, were used.
After dinner the Boyers generally spent half an hour in the music room. The electric lights were extinguished and the elder Mr. Boyer lighted the four candles. This act was something in the nature of a ceremony. A soft light was thrown on the room and a quiet, domestic atmosphere was created.
How Kremp intended to use this setting for his crime will be clear from the rehearsal of his actions.
II
Mr. Lewis Brophy was a highly respected man — in some circles. He was a man of many and variegated accomplishments all of which were conducive to inconvenience or ill-health, and sometimes even worse, to those on whom Mr. Brophy practiced. Mr. Brophy seldom sought acquaintances outside of his own set. Sometimes, however, he was sought. He could supply necessities of a certain kind and he was not particular whom he served so long as he was paid well for it.
A pickpocket whom he had met in jail had introduced Kremp to Brophy. On his third visit to the room of the thug the latter passed over a small glass bottle filled with yellowish liquid. Kremp was highly interested in the contents of the bottle and listened attentively to Mr. Brophy’s recital of the peculiar properties and characteristics of the contents.
“I boiled it down from dynamite,” explained Mr. Brophy. “And now you better be careful how you handle it. Nitroglycerine is a damn tricky stuff. And don’t get the fool idea that it always explodes on concussion. That’s what a lot of story writers think — that any jar is bound to set the stuff off. It might explode on concussion — and it might not. Now for instance, suppose you put a couple of drops on a stone and hit it a straight downward blow with a hammer. The chances are — mind you I say chances — that only that part which you hit will explode. But if you sock it a glancing blow the whole thing will go up. Then again, to judge by what happened to some of my friends, the stuff can be exploded by just looking at it kinda hard. It seems to have whims. Sometimes it will stand for a lot of monkeying and sometimes it’ll get all het up and blow you into a psychic plasma without no reason at all. Sudden heat will explode it; that’s one thing you can be pretty sure of.”