The Terrible Experience of Plodkins Page #2

"The Terrible Experience of Plodkins" by Robert Barr is a whimsical and engaging story that follows the misadventures of a bumbling yet endearing character named Plodkins. As he navigates a series of comedic predicaments, the book explores themes of resilience and the humorous challenges of everyday life. Through Barr's clever writing and playful narrative style, readers are treated to a delightful tale that combines humor with insightful observations about human nature.

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simply paralyzed me. I think liquor has something to do with the awful
effect the electricity had upon me, because I had taken too much the
night before, and was feeling very shaky indeed; but the result was
that I simply fell full length in the bath-tub just as you found me. I
was unable to move anything except my fingers and toes. I did not
appear to be hurt in the least, and my senses, instead of being dulled
by the shock, seemed to be preternaturally sharp, and I realized in a
moment that if this inability to move remained with me for five minutes
I was a dead man—dead, not from the shock, but by drowning. I gazed up
through that clear green water, and I could see the ripples on the
surface slowly subsiding after my plunge into the tub. It reminded me
of looking into an aquarium. You know how you see up through the water
to the surface with the bubbles rising to the top. I knew that nobody
would come in for at least half an hour, and even then I couldn’t
remember whether I had bolted the door or not. Sometimes I bolt it, and
sometimes I don’t. I didn’t this morning, as it happens. All the time I
felt that strength was slowly returning to me, for I continually worked
my fingers and toes, and now feeling seemed to be coming up to my
wrists and arms. Then I remembered that the vent was in the middle of
the bath-tub; so, wriggling my fingers around, I got hold of the ring,
and pulled up the plug. In the dense silence that was around me, I
could not tell whether the water was running out or not; but gazing up
towards the ceiling I thought I saw the surface gradually sinking down
and down and down. Of course it couldn’t have been more than a few
seconds, but it seemed to be years and years and years. I knew that if
once I let my breath go I would be drowned, merely by the spasmodic
action of my lungs trying to recover air. I felt as if I should burst.
It was a match against time, with life or death as the stake. At first,
as I said, my senses were abnormally sharp, but, by and by, I began to
notice that they were wavering. I thought the glassy surface of the
water, which I could see above me, was in reality a great sheet of
crystal that somebody was pressing down upon me, and I began to think
that the moment it reached my face I would smother. I tried to
struggle, but was held with a grip of steel. Finally, this slab of
crystal came down to my nose, and seemed to split apart. I could hold
on no longer, and with a mighty expiration blew the water up towards
the ceiling, and drew in a frightful smothering breath of salt water,
that I blew in turn upwards, and the next breath I took in had some air
with the water. I felt the water tickling the corners of my mouth, and
receding slower and slower down my face and neck. Then I think I must
have become insensible until just before you entered the room. Of
course there is something wrong with the electric fittings, and there
is a leak of electricity; but I think liquor is at the bottom of all
this. I don’t believe it would have affected me like this if I had not
been soaked in whiskey.”

“If I were you,” I said, “I would leave whiskey alone.”

“I intend to,” he answered solemnly, “and baths too.”
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