'Come! Be alive here!' cried Hugh, stamping his foot upon the ground.
'Make haste!'
Dennis, with a wink and a nod, unwound the cord from about his person,
and raising his eyes to the ceiling, looked all over it, and round the
walls and cornice, with a curious eye; then shook his head.
'Move, man, can't you!' cried Hugh, with another impatient stamp of his
foot. 'Are we to wait here, till the cry has gone for ten miles round,
and our work's interrupted?'
'It's all very fine talking, brother,' answered Dennis, stepping towards
him; 'but unless--' and here he whispered in his ear--'unless we do it
over the door, it can't be done at all in this here room.'
'What can't?' Hugh demanded.
'What can't!' retorted Dennis. 'Why, the old man can't.'
'Why, you weren't going to hang him!' cried Hugh.
'No, brother?' returned the hangman with a stare. 'What else?'
Hugh made no answer, but snatching the rope from his companion's hand,
proceeded to bind old John himself; but his very first move was so
bungling and unskilful, that Mr Dennis entreated, almost with tears
in his eyes, that he might be permitted to perform the duty. Hugh
consenting, he achieved it in a twinkling.
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