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.