The Badger looked sullenly upon the ground, presently he raised his head and examined the faces beneath him as if there was some one whom he wished to find.
He withdrew his eyes almost reluctantly, and turned them upon the officers behind him.
At this sign the clergyman moved on one side, and Calcraft approached.
All was hushed into silence, deep and terrible as that of the tomb.
Gregson had already made one step towards his death—he now placed himself on the drop.
Calcraft adjusted the noose around the miserable man’s neck, then passed a strap round his feet and secured it with horrible deliberation.
He drew a white cap over his eyes and mouth—then he disappeared beneath the gallows.
For an instant Gregson stood motionless upon his open tomb.
The eyes of Charles Peace were rivetted on the form of his quondam companion.
The bolt was withdrawn from below; there was a frightful crash; a black chasm opened beneath the feet of the culprit, whose body swung round and vibrated in the air.