a bolt from on high to
blast all who had been witnesses to such impiety and such impenitence.

The indignant warden moved to cut short this lamentable spectacle. He
signed with his hand for Uncle Tobe to make haste, and Uncle Tobe,
obeying, stepped forward from where he had been waiting in the rear rank
of the shocked spectators. Upon him the defiant ruffian turned the
forces of his sulfurous hate, full-gush. First over one shoulder and
then over the other as the executioner worked with swift fingers to bind
him into a rigid parcel of a man, he uttered what was both a dreadful
threat and a yet more dreadful promise.

"I ain't blamin' these other folks here," he proclaimed. "Some of 'em
are here because it's their duty to be here, an' ef these others kin git
pleasure out of seem' a man croaked that ain't afeared of bein' croaked,
they're welcome to enjoy the free show, so fur ez I'm concerned. But
you--you stingy, white-whiskered old snake!--you're doin' this fur the
little piece of dirty money that's in it fur you.

"Listen to me, you dog: I know I'm headin' straight fur hell, an' I
ain't skeered to go, neither. But I ain't goin' to stay there. I'm
comin' back fur you! I'm comin' back this very night to git you an' take
your old, withered, black soul back down to hell with me. No need fur
you to try to hide. Wharever you hide I'll seek you out. You can't git
away frum me. You kin lock your door an' you kin lock your winder, an'
you kin hide your head under the bedclothes, but I'll find you wharever
you are, remember that! An' you're goin' back down there with me!

"Now go ahead an' hang me--I'm all set fur it ef you are!"

Through this harangue Uncle Tobe worked on, outwardly composed. Whatever
his innermost emotions may have been, his expression gave no hint that
the mouthings of the Lone-Hand Kid had sunk in. He drew the peaked black
sack down across the swollen face, hiding the glaring eyes and the lips
that snarled. He brought the rope forward over the cloaked head and drew
the noose in tautly, with the knot adjusted to fit snugly just under the
left ear, so that the hood took on the semblance of a well-filled,
inverted bag with its puckered end fluting out in the effect of a dark
ruff upon the hunched shoulders of its wearer. Stepping back, he gripped
the handle of the lever-bar, and with all his strength jerked it toward
him. A square in the floor opened as the trap was flapped back upon its
hinges, and throu