n satisfaction that the mechanism
of the wooden lever which operated to spring the trap worked with an
instantaneous smoothness. To every detail he gave a painstaking
supervision, guarding against all possible contingencies. Regarding the
trustworthiness of the rope he was especially careful. When this
particular hanging was concluded, the scaffold would be taken apart and
stored away for subsequent use, but for each hanging the government
furnished a brand new rope, especially made at a factory in New Orleans
at a cost of eight dollars. The spectators generally cut the rope up
into short lengths after it had fulfilled its ordained purpose, and
carried the pieces away for souvenirs. So always there was a new rope
provided, and its dependability must be ascertained by prolonged and
exhaustive tests before Uncle Tobe would approve of it. Seeing him at
his task, with his coat and waistcoat off, his sleeves rolled back, and
his intent mien, one realised why, as a hangman, he had been a success.
He left absolutely nothing to chance. When he was through with his
experimenting, the possibility of an exhibition of the proneness of
inanimate objects to misbehave in emergencies had been reduced to a
minimum.

Before daylight next morning Uncle Tobe, dressed in sober black, like a
country undertaker, and with his mid-Victorian whiskers all cleansed and
combed, would present himself at his post of duty. He would linger in
the background, an unobtrusive bystander, until the condemned sinner had
gone through the mockery of eating his last breakfast; and, still making
himself inconspicuous during the march to the gallows, would trail at
the very tail of the line, while the short, straggling procession was
winding out through gas-lit murky hallways into the pale dawn-light
slanting over the walls of the gravel-paved, high-fenced compound built
against the outer side of the prison close. He would wait on, always
holding himself discreetly aloof from the middle breadth of the picture,
until the officiating clergyman had done with his sacred offices; would
wait until the white-faced wretch on whose account the government was
making all this pother and taking all this trouble, had mumbled his
farewell words this side of eternity; would continue to wait, very
patiently, indeed, until the warden nodded to him. Then, with his
trussing harness tucked under his arm, and the black cap neatly folded
and bestowed in a handy side-pocket of his coat