vidently this was no
vulgar assassin. The liberal military code makes provision for hanging
many kinds of persons, and gentlemen are not excluded.

The preparations being complete, the two private soldiers stepped aside
and each drew away the plank upon which he had been standing. The sergeant
turned to the captain, saluted, and placed himself immediately behind that
officer, who in turn moved apart one pace. These movements left the
condemned man and the sergeant standing on the two ends of the same plank,
which spanned three of the cross-ties of the bridge. The end upon which
the civilian stood almost, but not quite, reached a fourth. This plank had
been held in place by the weight of the captain; it was now held by that
of the sergeant. At a signal from the former, the latter would step
aside, the plank would tilt, and the condemned man go down between two
ties. The arrangement commended itself to his judgment as simple and
effective. His face had not been covered nor his eyes bandaged. He looked
a moment at his "unsteadfast footing," then let his gaze wander to the
swirling water of the stream racing madly beneath his feet. A piece of
dancing driftwood caught his attention and his eyes followed it down the
current. How slowly it appeared to move! What a sluggish stream!

He closed his eyes in order to fix his last thoughts upon his wife and
children. The water, touched to gold by the early sun, the brooding mists
under the banks at some distance down the stream, the fort, the soldiers,
the piece of drift--all had distracted him. And now he became conscious of
a new disturbance. Striking through the thought of his dear ones was a
sound which he could neither ignore nor understand, a sharp, distinct,
metallic percussion like the stroke of a blacksmith's hammer upon the
anvil; it had the same ringing quality. He wondered what it was, and
whether immeasurably distant or near by--it seemed both. Its recurrence
was regular, but as slow as the tolling of a death-knell. He awaited each
stroke with impatience and--he knew not why--apprehension. The intervals
of silence grew progressively longer; the delays became maddening. With
their greater infrequency the sounds increased in strength and sharpness.
They hurt his ear like the thrust of a knife; he feared he should shriek.
What he heard was the ticking of his watch.

He unclosed his eyes and saw again the water below him. "If I could free
my hands," he thought, "I might th