E-text prepared by David Garcia, Emmy, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) FROM PLACE TO PLACE The Works of IRVIN S. COBB [Illustration: Emblem] The Review of Reviews Corporation Publishers New York Published by Arrangement with George H. Doran Company Copyright, 1920, by George H. Doran Company Copyright, 1918, 1919, by the Curtis Publishing Company Copyright, 1918, by the Frank A. Munsey Co. Copyright, 1913, 1918, by the Red Book Corporation Printed in the United States of America TO CHARLES R. FLINT, ESQ. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I THE GALLOWSMITH 11 II THE BROKEN SHOELACE 55 III BOYS WILL BE BOYS 96 IV THE LUCK PIECE 156 V QUALITY FOLKS 206 VI JOHN J. COINCIDENCE 259 VII WHEN AUGUST THE SECOND WAS APRIL THE FIRST 302 VIII HOODWINKED 332 IX THE BULL CALLED EMILY 382 FROM PLACE TO PLACE CHAPTER I THE GALLOWSMITH This man that I have it in mind to write about was, at the time of which I write, an elderly man, getting well along toward sixty-five. He was tall and slightly stooped, with long arms, and big, gnarled, competent-looking hands, which smelled of yellow laundry soap, and had huge, tarnished nails on the fingers. He had mild, pale eyes, a light blue as to colour, with heavy sacs under them, and whitish whiskers, spindly and thin, like some sort of second-growth, which were so cut as to enclose his lower face in a nappy fringe, extending from ear to ear under his chin. He suffered from a chronic heart affection, and this gave to his skin a pronounced and unhealthy pallor. He was neat and prim in his personal habits, kind to dumb animals, and tolerant of small children. He was inclined to be miserly; certainly in money matters he was most prudent and saving. He had the air about him of being lonely. His name was Tobias Dramm. In the town where he lived he was commonly known as Uncle Tobe Dramm. By profession he was a public hangman. You might call him a gallowsmith. He hanged men for hire.