ile
the captive paced the length and breadth of the narrow corridor back and
across, to and fro, up and down, with the futile restlessness of a cat
animal in a zoo, his feet clumping on the flagged flooring, and the
watchful turnkey standing by, Uncle Tobe, having flattened his lean form
in a niche behind the outer lattice, with an appraising eye would
consider the shifting figure through a convenient cranny of the wattled
metal strips. He took care to keep himself well back out of view, but
since he stood in shadow while the one he marked so keenly moved in a
flood of daylight filtering down through a skylight in the ceiling of
the cell block, the chances were the prisoner could not have made out
the indistinct form of the stranger anyhow. Five or ten minutes of such
scrutiny of his man was all Uncle Tobe ever desired. In his earlier days
before he took up this present employment, he had been an adept at
guessing the hoof-weight of the beeves and swine in which he dealt.
That early experience stood him in good stead now; he took no credit to
himself for his accuracy in estimating the bulk of a living human being.

Downstairs, on the way out of the place, if by chance he encountered the
warden in his office, the warden, in all likelihood, would say: "Well,
how about it this time, Uncle Tobe?"

And Uncle Tobe would make some such answer as this:

"Well, suh, accordin' to my reckonin' this here one will heft about a
hund'ed an' sixty-five pound, ez he stands now. How's he takin' it,
warden?"

"Oh, so-so."

"He looks to me like he was broodin' a right smart," the expert might
say. "I jedge he ain't relishin' his vittles much, neither. Likely he'll
worry three or four pound more off'n his bones 'twixt now an' Friday
mornin'. He oughter run about one hund'ed an' sixty or mebbe
one-sixty-one by then."

"How much drop do you allow to give him?"

"Don't worry about that, suh," would be the answer given with a
contemplative squint of the placid, pale eye. "I reckin my calculations
won't be very fur out of the way, ef any."

They never were, either.

On the day before the day, he would be a busy man, what with
superintending the fitting together and setting up of the painted
lumber pieces upon which tomorrow's capital tragedy would be played;
and, when this was done to his liking, trying the drop to see that the
boards had not warped, and trying the rope for possible flaws in its
fabric or weave, and proving to his ow