'I didn't wait for him to arrive at conclusions. I said something like, ‘Are you the responsible official here?' Bob'd already made himself scarce. Sir Winston laughed a little too heartily and allowed as how he was. ‘Well, I'd like to register a complaint,' I said. ‘You said you were going to carry out one or two exemplary hangings. But is this your notion of exemplary? The rope is too thin, the noose is ill-made, the tree-limb is barely adequate to support the burden, and the proceedings were, if I may say so, carried out with a want of pomp and showmanship that'd have the crowd at Tyburn baying for Jack Ketch's blood if he ever staged one so shabbily.''