his
he spread out on a board and both men examined it carefully. Next they
crossed to the lumber pile and looked it over. They were evidently
making some sort of calculation. Then they pulled on their overalls and
went to work, and in one corner of the yard--the corner opposite North's
window--they began to build his scaffold. The thing took shape before
his very eyes, a monstrous anachronism.

General Herbert had not been idle while the unhurried preparations for
John North's execution were going forward; whatever his secret feeling
was, neither his words nor his manner conceded defeat. Belknap had tried
every expedient known to criminal practice to secure a new trial but had
failed, and it was now evident that without the intervention of the
governor, North's doom was fixed unalterably. Belknap quitted Mount Hope
for Columbus, and there followed daily letters and almost hourly
telegrams, but General Herbert felt from the first that the lawyer was
not sanguine of success. Then on the eighth of June, two days before the
execution, came a long message from the lawyer. His wife was ill, her
recovery was doubtful; the governor was fully possessed of the facts in
North's case and was considering them, would the general come at once to
Columbus?

This telegram reached Idle Hour late at night, and the next morning
father and daughter were driven into Mount Hope. The pleasant life with
its agreeable ordering which the general had known for ten peaceful
years had resolved itself into a mad race with time. The fearful, the
monstrous, seemed to reach out and grip him with skeleton fingers. Like
the pale silent girl at his side, he was knowing the horror of death,
and a horror that was beyond death.

They stopped at the jail to say good-by to North, and were then driven
rapidly to the station. The journey of about two hours seemed
interminable, but they rarely spoke. Elizabeth did not change the
position she had assumed when they took their seats. She leaned lightly
against her father's broad shoulder and her hands were clasped in her
lap.

For weeks the situation had been absolutely pitiless. Their wrecked
efforts were at the door of every hope, and if this mission failed--but
it would not fail! All they had come to ask was the life of an innocent
man, and surely the governor, unaffected by local prejudice, must
realize John North's innocence.

It was two o'clock when they reached their destination, and as they left
the ca