a quarter past six
o'clock in the morning
Without delay , his offer was accepted . There was no prolonged haggling over terms , either . He himself fixed the cost of the job at seventy-five dollars ; this figure to include supervision of the erection of the gallows , testing of the apparatus , and the actual operation itself . So , on the appointed day , at a certain hour , to wit , a quarter past six o'clock in the morning , just outside the prison walls , and in the presence of the proper and ordained number of witnesses , Uncle Tobe , with a grave , untroubled face , and hands which neither fumbled nor trembled , tied up the doomed felon and hooded his head in a black-cloth bag , and fitted a noose about his neck . The drop fell at eighteen minutes past the hour . Fourteen minutes later , following brief tests of heart and pulse , the two attending physicians agreed that the half-breed was quite satisfactorily defunct . They likewise coincided in the opinion that the hanging had been conducted with neatness , and with swiftness , and with the least possible amount of physical suffering for the deceased .