1
00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:03,839
A man stood upon a railroad bridge
in northern Alabama, looking down into the

2
00:00:03,879 --> 00:00:09,279
swift water twenty feet below. The
man's hands were behind his back, the

3
00:00:09,320 --> 00:00:14,080
wrists bound with a rope. A
rope closely and jurgled his neck. It

4
00:00:14,199 --> 00:00:18,839
was attached to a stout cross temper
above his head, and the slight fell

5
00:00:18,879 --> 00:00:23,160
to the level of his knees.
Some loose boards laid upon the sleepers,

6
00:00:23,160 --> 00:00:28,280
supporting the metals of the railway,
supplied a footing for him and his executioners.

7
00:00:28,760 --> 00:00:33,399
Two private soldiers of the Federal Army, directed by a sergeant who in

8
00:00:33,479 --> 00:00:38,240
civil life may have been a deputy
share at a short remove upon the same

9
00:00:38,280 --> 00:00:43,200
temporary platform was an officer in the
uniform of his rank. Armed he was

10
00:00:43,200 --> 00:00:47,200
a captain. A sentinel at each
end of the bridge stood with his rifle

11
00:00:47,240 --> 00:00:51,880
in the position known as support,
that is to say, vertical in front

12
00:00:51,920 --> 00:00:56,200
of the left shoulder, the hammer
resting on the forearm thrown straight across the

13
00:00:56,280 --> 00:01:02,719
chest, a formal and unnatural position
enforcing an erect carriage of the body.

14
00:01:03,079 --> 00:01:04,879
Did not appear to be the duty
of these two men to know what was

15
00:01:04,959 --> 00:01:11,000
occurring at the center of the bridge. They merely blockaded the two ends of

16
00:01:11,040 --> 00:01:15,280
the foot planking that traversed it.
Beyond one of the sentinels, Nobody was

17
00:01:15,319 --> 00:01:19,879
in sight. The railroad ran straight
away into a forest for a hundred yards,

18
00:01:21,439 --> 00:01:26,280
then curving was lost to view.
Doubtless there was an outpost. Farther

19
00:01:26,359 --> 00:01:30,799
along the other bank of the stream
was open ground, a gentle acclivity topped

20
00:01:30,799 --> 00:01:36,799
with a stock aid of vertical tree
trunks, loop holed for rifles with a

21
00:01:36,840 --> 00:01:42,760
single embrasure through which protruded the muzzle
of a brass cannon. Commanding the bridge

22
00:01:42,359 --> 00:01:48,120
midway of the slope between bridge and
the fort were the spectators, A single

23
00:01:48,159 --> 00:01:53,159
company of infantry in line at parade, rest the buds of the rivals on

24
00:01:53,200 --> 00:01:57,239
the ground, the barrels inclining slightly
backward against the right shoulder, the hands

25
00:01:57,280 --> 00:02:01,359
crossed upon the stock. A lieutenant
stood in the right of the lane,

26
00:02:02,120 --> 00:02:07,000
the point of his sword upon the
ground, his left hand resting upon his

27
00:02:07,120 --> 00:02:10,439
right. Excepting the group of four
at the center of the bridge, not

28
00:02:10,560 --> 00:02:16,120
a man moved. The company faced
the bridge, staring stonily motionless. The

29
00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:22,479
sentinels facing the banks of the stream
might have been statutes to adorn the bridge.

30
00:02:22,879 --> 00:02:25,879
The captain stood with folded arms,
silent, observing the work of his

31
00:02:25,960 --> 00:02:32,159
subordinates, but making no sign.
Death is a dignitary who, when he

32
00:02:32,240 --> 00:02:38,520
comes announced, is to be received
with formal manifestations of respect, even by

33
00:02:38,560 --> 00:02:44,960
those most familiar with him. In
the code of military etiquette, silence and

34
00:02:45,039 --> 00:02:50,199
fixity, or forms of deference.
The man who was engaged in being hanged

35
00:02:50,879 --> 00:02:53,520
was apparently about thirty five years of
age. He was a civilian, if

36
00:02:53,560 --> 00:02:58,520
one might judge from his habboit,
which is that of a planter. His

37
00:02:58,639 --> 00:03:04,439
features were good, a straight nose, firm mouth, broad forehead from which

38
00:03:04,479 --> 00:03:08,120
his long dark hair was calmed,
straight back, falling behind his ears to

39
00:03:08,199 --> 00:03:14,240
the collar of his well fitting frock
coat. He wore a mustache and appointed

40
00:03:14,280 --> 00:03:19,599
beard, but no whiskers. His
eyes were large and dark gray, and

41
00:03:19,719 --> 00:03:24,919
had a kindly expression which one would
hardly have expected in one whose neck was

42
00:03:24,960 --> 00:03:30,599
in the hemp. The Liberal Military
Code makes provision for hanging many kinds of

43
00:03:30,639 --> 00:03:36,319
persons, and gentlemen were not excluded. The preparations being completed, the two

44
00:03:36,400 --> 00:03:39,879
private soldiers stepped aside, and each
drew away the plank upon which he had

45
00:03:39,879 --> 00:03:46,439
been standing. The sergeant turned to
the captain saluted and moved himself immediately behind

46
00:03:46,520 --> 00:03:53,360
that officer, who in turned moved
apart one's space. These movements left the

47
00:03:53,439 --> 00:03:57,520
condemned man and the sergeant standing on
the two ends of the same plank,

48
00:03:57,919 --> 00:04:01,479
which spanned three of the crossed eyes
of the bridge. The end upon which

49
00:04:01,520 --> 00:04:06,520
the civilian stood almost but not quite
reached to fourth. This plank had been

50
00:04:06,560 --> 00:04:11,080
held in place by the weight of
the captain. It was now held by

51
00:04:11,120 --> 00:04:14,879
that of the sergeant. At a
signal from the farmer, the latter would

52
00:04:14,879 --> 00:04:18,839
step aside, the plank would tilt, and the condemned man go down between

53
00:04:18,879 --> 00:04:26,240
the two ties. The arrangement commended
itself to his judgment as simple and effective.

54
00:04:26,879 --> 00:04:30,279
His face had not been covered,
nor his eyes bandage. He looked

55
00:04:30,279 --> 00:04:35,079
a moment at his unsteadfast footing,
then let his gaze wander to the swirling

56
00:04:35,160 --> 00:04:41,720
waters of the stream racing madly beneath
his feet. A piece of dancing driftwood

57
00:04:41,759 --> 00:04:46,360
caught his attention, and his eyes
followed it down the stream. How slowly

58
00:04:46,360 --> 00:04:50,079
it appeared to move, What a
sluggish stream. He closed his eyes in

59
00:04:50,199 --> 00:04:55,639
order to fix his last thoughts upon
his wife and children. The water touched

60
00:04:55,639 --> 00:05:00,560
to gold by the early sun.
The brooding midst upon the back at some

61
00:05:00,680 --> 00:05:04,680
distance down the stream, the fort, the soldiers, the piece of drift,

62
00:05:04,920 --> 00:05:11,120
all had distracted him, And now
he became conscious of a new disturbance.

63
00:05:11,839 --> 00:05:15,079
Striking through the thought of his dear
ones was a sharp sound which he

64
00:05:15,120 --> 00:05:21,360
could neither I nor understand, A
distinct metallic percussion, like the stroke of

65
00:05:21,399 --> 00:05:27,800
a blacksmith's hammer upon the anvil.
It had the same ringing quality. He

66
00:05:27,920 --> 00:05:32,319
wondered what it was, and whether
immeasurably distant or nearby, it seemed both.

67
00:05:33,079 --> 00:05:38,000
Its occurrence was regular, but as
slow as the tolling of a death

68
00:05:38,079 --> 00:05:44,439
knell. He awaited each stroke with
impatience, and he knew not why apprehension

69
00:05:45,079 --> 00:05:51,000
the interval of silence who progressively longer
The delays became maddening. With their greatest

70
00:05:51,079 --> 00:05:57,839
infrequency, the sounds increased in strength
and sharpness. They hurt his ears like

71
00:05:57,879 --> 00:06:01,639
the thrust of a knife. He
would shriek. What he heard was the

72
00:06:01,680 --> 00:06:08,480
ticking of his watch. He unclosed
his eyes and saw again the water below

73
00:06:08,560 --> 00:06:12,279
him. If I could free my
hands, he thought, I might throw

74
00:06:12,399 --> 00:06:16,240
off the noose and spring into the
stream. By diving, I could evade

75
00:06:16,240 --> 00:06:20,120
the bullets, and, swimming vigorously, reached the bank. Take to the

76
00:06:20,160 --> 00:06:25,800
woods and get away. Home.
My home, thank God, is as

77
00:06:25,879 --> 00:06:30,879
yet outside their lives. My wife
and little ones are still beyond the invader's

78
00:06:30,920 --> 00:06:36,319
father's advance. As these thoughts,
which have hereto be set down in words,

79
00:06:36,759 --> 00:06:43,720
were flashed into the dune'sman's brain rather
than evolved from it, the captain

80
00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:49,560
nodded to the sergeant, and the
sergeant stepped aside. Peyton Farquhar was a

81
00:06:49,600 --> 00:06:55,839
well tonew planter of an old and
highly respected Alabama family. Being a slave

82
00:06:55,879 --> 00:06:59,720
owner, and like the other slave
owners, a politician, it was naturally

83
00:06:59,759 --> 00:07:05,720
an original secessionist and artly devoted to
the Southern cause. Circumstances of an imperious

84
00:07:05,839 --> 00:07:11,800
nature, which it is unnecessary to
relate here, had prevented him from taking

85
00:07:11,839 --> 00:07:16,879
service with the Gallot army that had
fought the disastrous campaign's ending with the fall

86
00:07:16,959 --> 00:07:23,720
of Corinth, and he chafed under
the inglorious restraint, longing for the release

87
00:07:23,759 --> 00:07:29,079
of his energies, the larger life
of the soldier, the opportunity for distinction.

88
00:07:29,759 --> 00:07:32,519
That opportunity he felt would come as
it comes to all in war time.

89
00:07:33,120 --> 00:07:38,079
Meanwhile, he did what he could. No service was too humble for

90
00:07:38,199 --> 00:07:41,800
him to perform, an aid of
the South, no adventure too perilous for

91
00:07:41,879 --> 00:07:46,319
him to undertake, if consistent with
the character of a civilian who was at

92
00:07:46,399 --> 00:07:49,800
heart a soldier, and who,
in good faith and without too much qualification,

93
00:07:50,439 --> 00:07:57,240
assented to at least a part of
the frankly villainous dictum that all is

94
00:07:57,360 --> 00:08:03,399
fair in love and war. One
evening, while Farkhar and his wife were

95
00:08:03,439 --> 00:08:07,959
sitting on a rustic bench near the
entrance to his grounds, a gray clad

96
00:08:09,040 --> 00:08:11,959
soldier rode up to the gate and
asked for a drink of water. Missus

97
00:08:11,959 --> 00:08:16,160
Farquhar was only too happy to serve
him with her own white ends. While

98
00:08:16,199 --> 00:08:22,160
she was fetching the water, her
husband approached the dusty horseman and inquired eagerly

99
00:08:22,240 --> 00:08:26,439
for news from the front. The
Yanks are repairing the railroad, said the

100
00:08:26,480 --> 00:08:30,279
man, and are getting ready for
another advance. They have reached the ale

101
00:08:30,319 --> 00:08:33,679
Creek bridge, put it in order, and built a stockade on the north

102
00:08:33,799 --> 00:08:39,879
bank. The commandant has issued an
order which is posted everywhere, declaring that

103
00:08:39,039 --> 00:08:45,919
any civilian caught interfering with the railroad
its bridges, tunnels or drains will be

104
00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:50,919
summarily hanged. I saw the order. How far is it to the al

105
00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:54,759
Creek bridge, Farkhar asked, Or
about thirty miles? Is there no force

106
00:08:54,799 --> 00:08:58,799
on this side of the creek,
only a picket post half a mile out

107
00:09:00,039 --> 00:09:03,960
on the railroad, and a single
sentinel in this end of the bridge.

108
00:09:03,720 --> 00:09:09,159
Suppose a man, a civilian,
and a student of hanging should elude the

109
00:09:09,200 --> 00:09:11,759
picket post and perhaps get the better
of the sentinel, said Farquhar, smiling.

110
00:09:11,799 --> 00:09:16,440
What would he accomplish? The soldier
reflected, I was there a month

111
00:09:16,480 --> 00:09:22,000
ago, he replied. I observed
that the flood of last winter had lodged

112
00:09:22,039 --> 00:09:26,759
a great quantity of driftwood against the
wooden pier at this end of the bridge.

113
00:09:26,799 --> 00:09:30,679
It is now drying, would burn
like tow. The lady had now

114
00:09:30,679 --> 00:09:35,240
brought the water, which the soldier
drank. He thanked her, ceremoniously bowed

115
00:09:35,279 --> 00:09:39,360
to her husband, and rode away. An hour later, after nightfall,

116
00:09:39,480 --> 00:09:43,159
he repassed the plantation, going northward
in the direction from which he had come.

117
00:09:43,799 --> 00:09:52,159
He was a Federal scout. As
Peyton Farquhar fell straight downwards through the

118
00:09:52,200 --> 00:09:58,519
bridge, he lost some consciousness,
and was as one already dead from this

119
00:09:58,720 --> 00:10:01,480
date. He was awakened ages later, it seemed to him, by the

120
00:10:01,519 --> 00:10:07,039
pain of a sharp pressure upon his
throat, followed by a sense of suffocation.

121
00:10:07,840 --> 00:10:11,879
Keen, poignant agony seemed to shoot
from his neck downward through every fiber

122
00:10:11,960 --> 00:10:16,759
of his body and limbs. These
pains appeared to flash along well defined lines

123
00:10:16,799 --> 00:10:24,120
of ramification, and to beat with
an inconceivably rapid curiosity. They seemed like

124
00:10:24,200 --> 00:10:28,759
streams of pulsating fire, heating him
to an intolerable temperature. As to his

125
00:10:28,960 --> 00:10:33,240
head, he was conscious of nothing
but a feeling of fullness, of congestion.

126
00:10:33,840 --> 00:10:39,240
These sensations were unaccompanied by thought.
The intellectual part of his nature was

127
00:10:39,360 --> 00:10:45,320
already effaced. He had power only
to feel, and feeling was torment.

128
00:10:45,919 --> 00:10:50,360
He was conscious of motion, unencompassed
in a luminous cloud from which he was

129
00:10:50,480 --> 00:10:58,039
now merely the fiery heart without material
substance. He swung through unthinkable arcs of

130
00:10:58,080 --> 00:11:01,639
oscillation, like a vast pendulum.
Then, all at once, with terrible

131
00:11:01,679 --> 00:11:07,759
suddenness, the light about him shot
upward with the noise of a loud splash.

132
00:11:07,399 --> 00:11:13,240
A fightful roaring was in his ears, and all was cold and dark.

133
00:11:15,360 --> 00:11:18,399
The power of thought was restored.
He knew that the rope had broken

134
00:11:18,440 --> 00:11:24,080
and he had fallen into the stream. There was no additional strigulation. The

135
00:11:24,120 --> 00:11:28,200
noose about his neck was already suffocating
him, and kept the water from his

136
00:11:28,320 --> 00:11:31,759
lungs. To dive. Of hanging
at the bottom of a river, the

137
00:11:31,879 --> 00:11:35,480
idea seemed to him ludicrous. He
opened his eyes in the darkness and saw

138
00:11:35,519 --> 00:11:41,000
above him a gleam of light.
But how distance, how inaccessible. He

139
00:11:41,120 --> 00:11:46,360
was still singing, for the light
became fainter and fainter, until it was

140
00:11:46,399 --> 00:11:50,200
a mere glimmer. Then it began
to grow and brighten, and he knew

141
00:11:50,200 --> 00:11:54,080
that he was rising toward the surface. Knew it with reluctance, for he

142
00:11:54,200 --> 00:12:00,480
was now very comfortable to be hanged
and drowned. He thought, that is

143
00:12:00,519 --> 00:12:03,759
not so bad. But I do
not wish to be shot. No,

144
00:12:03,039 --> 00:12:07,240
I will not be shot. That
is not fair. He was not conscious

145
00:12:07,279 --> 00:12:11,120
of an effort, but a sharp
pain in his wrist appraised him that he

146
00:12:11,159 --> 00:12:16,120
was trying to free his hands.
He gave the struggle his attention, as

147
00:12:16,120 --> 00:12:20,399
an idler might observe the feet of
a juggler without interest in the outcome.

148
00:12:20,799 --> 00:12:28,159
What splendid effort, what magnificent,
what superhuman strength? Ah, that was

149
00:12:28,200 --> 00:12:33,639
a fine endeavor. Bravo. The
card fell away, His arms parted and

150
00:12:33,720 --> 00:12:37,919
floated upward, the hands dimly seen
on each side in the growing light.

151
00:12:39,159 --> 00:12:43,960
He watched them with a new interest
as first one and then the other pulsed

152
00:12:43,039 --> 00:12:48,279
upon the noose at his neck.
They tore it away and thrust it fiercely

153
00:12:48,279 --> 00:12:52,799
aside, his undulations resembling those of
a water snake. Put it back,

154
00:12:52,879 --> 00:12:56,080
Put it back, he thought.
He shouted these words to his hands,

155
00:12:56,440 --> 00:13:01,240
for the undoing of the news had
been succeeded by the direst that he had

156
00:13:01,320 --> 00:13:05,360
yet experienced. His neck ached horribly, his brain was on fire. His

157
00:13:05,519 --> 00:13:09,360
heart, which had been fluttering faintly, gave a great leap, trying to

158
00:13:09,440 --> 00:13:16,320
force itself out at his mouth.
His whole body was racked and wretched with

159
00:13:16,440 --> 00:13:22,200
an insupportable anguish. But his disobedient
hands gave no heed to the command.

160
00:13:22,759 --> 00:13:26,879
They beat the water vigorously, with
quick downward strokes, forcing him to the

161
00:13:26,919 --> 00:13:33,000
surface. He felt his head emerge. His eyes were blinded by the sunlight.

162
00:13:33,679 --> 00:13:39,519
His chest expended convulsively and with a
supreme and crowning agony. His lungs

163
00:13:39,559 --> 00:13:48,159
engulfed a great dropped of air,
which instantly he expelled in a shriek.

164
00:13:48,480 --> 00:13:52,919
He was now in full possession of
his physical senses. They were, indeed

165
00:13:52,080 --> 00:13:58,639
preternaturally keen and alert. Something in
the awful disturbance of his organic system had

166
00:13:58,679 --> 00:14:03,720
so exalted and refined them that they
made record of things ever before perceived.

167
00:14:05,279 --> 00:14:09,600
He felt the ripples upon his face, and heard their separate sounds as they

168
00:14:09,639 --> 00:14:13,840
struck. He looked at the forest
on the bank of the stream, saw

169
00:14:13,879 --> 00:14:18,480
the individual trees, the leaves and
the veining of each leaf. Saw the

170
00:14:18,600 --> 00:14:24,399
very insectives upon them, the locusts, the brilliant bodied flies, the gray

171
00:14:24,480 --> 00:14:31,240
spiders stretching their webs from twig to
twig. He noted the prismatic colors in

172
00:14:31,440 --> 00:14:35,919
all the dewdrops upon a million blades
of grass, the humming of the gnats

173
00:14:35,960 --> 00:14:41,759
that danked above the eddies of the
stream, the beating of the dragonfly wings,

174
00:14:43,120 --> 00:14:48,519
the strokes of the water spider's legs
like oars which had lifted their boat.

175
00:14:48,200 --> 00:14:54,120
All these made audible music. A
fish slid along beneath his eyes,

176
00:14:54,519 --> 00:14:58,440
and he heard the rush of his
body parting the water. He had come

177
00:14:58,480 --> 00:15:01,879
to the surface, facing down on
the stream. In a moment, the

178
00:15:01,960 --> 00:15:07,360
visible whorls seemed to wheel slowly round
himself the pivotal point, and he saw

179
00:15:07,399 --> 00:15:13,039
the bridge, the fort, the
two soldiers upon the bridge, the captain,

180
00:15:13,440 --> 00:15:18,799
the sergeant, the two privates,
his executioners. They were in silhouette

181
00:15:18,799 --> 00:15:24,360
against the blue sky. They shouted
and gestillated, pointing at him. The

182
00:15:24,440 --> 00:15:28,919
captain has drawn his pistol, but
did not fire. The others were unarmed.

183
00:15:28,399 --> 00:15:35,799
Their movements were grotesque and horrible,
their forms gigantic. Suddenly he heard

184
00:15:35,840 --> 00:15:39,919
a sharp report, and something struck
the water smartly, within a few inches

185
00:15:39,960 --> 00:15:43,840
of his head, splattering his face
with spray. He heard a second report,

186
00:15:43,919 --> 00:15:48,360
and saw one of the sentinels with
his rifle at his shoulder, a

187
00:15:48,440 --> 00:15:52,360
light cloud of blue smoke rising from
the muzzle. The man in the water

188
00:15:52,480 --> 00:15:56,559
saw the eye of the man on
the bridge. Gazing into his own through

189
00:15:56,600 --> 00:16:00,240
the sights of the rifle, he
observed that it was a gray eye eye,

190
00:16:00,600 --> 00:16:04,720
and remembered having read that gray eyes
were keenest and that all famous marksmen

191
00:16:04,799 --> 00:16:10,799
had them. Nevertheless, this one
had missed a countless swirl, had called

192
00:16:10,840 --> 00:16:15,279
Farquhar and turned him half around.
He was again looking into the forest on

193
00:16:15,320 --> 00:16:19,200
the bank opposite the fort. The
sound of a clear, high voice in

194
00:16:19,240 --> 00:16:25,759
a monotonous sing song now rang out
behind him and came across the water with

195
00:16:25,879 --> 00:16:30,360
a distinctness that pierced and subdued all
other sounds, even the beating of the

196
00:16:30,440 --> 00:16:37,120
ripples in his ear. Although no
soldier, he had frequented camps enough to

197
00:16:37,200 --> 00:16:42,759
know the dread significance of that deliberate, drawling, aspirated chant. The lieutenant

198
00:16:42,799 --> 00:16:48,039
on shore was taking a part in
the morning's work, how coldly and piteously,

199
00:16:48,519 --> 00:16:56,200
with what an even calm intonation,
presaging and enforcing tranquility in the men,

200
00:16:56,799 --> 00:17:03,879
With what accurately measured intervals fell those
cruel words Attention company, soldiers,

201
00:17:03,400 --> 00:17:11,799
Arms ready, aim fire. Farquard
dived, dived as deeply as he could.

202
00:17:12,359 --> 00:17:17,279
The water roared in his ears like
the voice of niagra. Yet he

203
00:17:17,279 --> 00:17:21,480
heard the dull thunder of the volley, and rising again toward the surface,

204
00:17:21,920 --> 00:17:27,920
met shining bits of metal, singularly
flattened, oscillating slowly downward. Some of

205
00:17:27,960 --> 00:17:32,920
them touched him on the face and
hands, and fell away, continuing their

206
00:17:32,920 --> 00:17:37,039
descent. One lodge between his collar
and his neck. It was uncomfortably warm,

207
00:17:37,079 --> 00:17:41,359
and he snatched it out. As
he rose to the surface, gasping

208
00:17:41,400 --> 00:17:45,119
for breath, he saw that he
had been a long time under water.

209
00:17:45,759 --> 00:17:52,799
He was perceptibly furthered downstream nearer to
safety. The soldiers had almost finished reloading

210
00:17:52,319 --> 00:17:56,720
the metal ramrods flashed all at once
in the sunshine as they were drawn from

211
00:17:56,759 --> 00:18:00,200
the barrels, turned in the air, and threw rust into their sockets.

212
00:18:00,640 --> 00:18:07,759
The two sentinels fired again, independently
and ineffectually. The hunted man saw all

213
00:18:07,799 --> 00:18:11,440
this over his shoulder. He was
now swimming vigorously with the current. His

214
00:18:11,559 --> 00:18:15,359
brain was as energetic as his arms
and legs, he thought, with the

215
00:18:15,440 --> 00:18:21,400
rapidity of lightning. The officer,
he reasoned, will not make that Martinette's

216
00:18:21,440 --> 00:18:26,440
era a second time. It is
as easy to dodge a folly as a

217
00:18:26,440 --> 00:18:30,240
single shot. He has probably already
given the command to fire at will God

218
00:18:30,319 --> 00:18:34,880
help me? I cannot dodge them
all. An appalling splash within two yards

219
00:18:34,880 --> 00:18:40,720
of him was followed by a loud, rushing sound which seemed to travel back

220
00:18:40,759 --> 00:18:45,400
through the air to the fort,
and died in an explosion which stirred the

221
00:18:45,519 --> 00:18:49,559
very river to his steps. A
rising sheet of water curved over him,

222
00:18:49,880 --> 00:18:55,200
fell down upon him, blinded him, and strangled him. The cannon had

223
00:18:55,240 --> 00:18:59,319
taken a hand in the game.
As he shook his head free from the

224
00:18:59,319 --> 00:19:03,319
commotion of the smitten water, he
heard the deflected shot humming through the air

225
00:19:03,359 --> 00:19:10,599
ahead, and in an instant it
was cracking and smashing the branches in the

226
00:19:10,640 --> 00:19:14,400
forest beyond. They will not do
that again, he thought, The next

227
00:19:14,440 --> 00:19:17,480
time, they will use a charge
of grape. I must keep my eye

228
00:19:17,519 --> 00:19:22,319
upon the gun. The smoke will
apprise me. The report arrives too late.

229
00:19:22,799 --> 00:19:26,480
It lags behind the missile. That
is a good gun. Suddenly he

230
00:19:26,519 --> 00:19:32,319
felt himself whirled around and round,
spinning like a top. The water,

231
00:19:32,799 --> 00:19:37,519
the banks, the forests, the
now distant bridge, fort, and men

232
00:19:37,200 --> 00:19:42,920
all were commingled and blurred. Objects
were represented by their colors, only circular

233
00:19:42,960 --> 00:19:48,079
horizontal streaks of color. That was
all he saw. It had been caught

234
00:19:48,119 --> 00:19:52,960
in aforetex and was being whirled on
with a velocity of advance and gyration that

235
00:19:53,079 --> 00:19:56,640
made him giddy and sick. In
a few moments, he was flung upon

236
00:19:56,640 --> 00:20:00,039
the gravel at the foot of the
left bank of the stream, the southern

237
00:20:00,079 --> 00:20:06,119
bag and behind the projecting points,
which concealed him from his enemies. The

238
00:20:06,200 --> 00:20:08,799
sudden arrest of his motion, the
abrasion of one of his hands on the

239
00:20:08,839 --> 00:20:14,319
gravel, restored him, and he
wept with delight. He dug his fingers

240
00:20:14,319 --> 00:20:19,559
into the sand, threw it over
himself in handfuls, and audibly blessed it.

241
00:20:19,559 --> 00:20:23,480
It looked like diamonds, rubies,
emeralds. He could think of nothing

242
00:20:23,599 --> 00:20:30,240
beautiful which it did not resemble.
The trees upon the banks were giant garden

243
00:20:30,319 --> 00:20:34,440
plants. He noted a definite order
in their arrangement, inhaled the fragrance of

244
00:20:34,480 --> 00:20:41,160
their blooms. A strange rosette light
shone through the branches among their trunks,

245
00:20:41,400 --> 00:20:45,480
and the wind made in their branches
the music of harps. He had no

246
00:20:45,599 --> 00:20:52,359
wish to perfect his escape, was
content to remain in that enchanting spot until

247
00:20:52,400 --> 00:20:56,559
we taken. A whist and a
rattle of grape shot among the branches high

248
00:20:56,599 --> 00:21:02,480
above his head roused him from the
stream. The baffled cannoneer had fired him

249
00:21:02,519 --> 00:21:06,960
a random farewell. He sprang to
his feet, rushed up the sloping bank,

250
00:21:07,359 --> 00:21:11,799
and plunged into the forest. All
that day, he traveled, laying

251
00:21:11,839 --> 00:21:17,319
his course by the rounding sun.
The forest seemed interminable. Nowhere did he

252
00:21:17,440 --> 00:21:21,519
discover a break in it, not
even a woodsman road. He had not

253
00:21:21,640 --> 00:21:25,640
known that he lived in so wild
a region. There was something uncanny in

254
00:21:25,680 --> 00:21:30,920
the revelation. By nightfall, he
was fatigued, footsore, and famished.

255
00:21:30,680 --> 00:21:36,279
Thought of his wife and children urged
him on. At last he found a

256
00:21:36,359 --> 00:21:40,200
road which led him to what he
knew to be the right direction, and

257
00:21:40,400 --> 00:21:44,759
was as wide and straight as the
city street. Yet it seemed untraveled.

258
00:21:45,319 --> 00:21:49,200
No fields boarded it, no dwelling
anywhere, not so much as the barking

259
00:21:49,240 --> 00:21:55,119
of a dog suggested human habitation.
The black bodies of the trees formed a

260
00:21:55,119 --> 00:21:59,920
straight wall on both sides, terminating
on the horizon in a point like a

261
00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:03,680
diagram, in a lesson in perspective. Overhead, as he looked up through

262
00:22:03,720 --> 00:22:10,880
this rift in the woods, shone
great golden stars, looking unfamiliar and grouped

263
00:22:10,880 --> 00:22:15,880
in strange constellations. He was sure
they were arranged in some order which had

264
00:22:15,920 --> 00:22:19,839
a secret and malign significance. The
wood on either side was full of singular

265
00:22:19,880 --> 00:22:27,279
noises, among which once twice again
he distinctly heard whispers in an unknown tongue.

266
00:22:27,440 --> 00:22:30,640
His neck was in pain, and
lifting his hand to it, he

267
00:22:30,720 --> 00:22:34,960
found it horribly swollen. He knew
that it had a circle of black where

268
00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:41,240
the rope had bruised it. Eli's
eyes felt congested, could no longer close

269
00:22:41,400 --> 00:22:48,039
them. His tongue was swollen with
thirst. He relieved his fever by thrusting

270
00:22:48,039 --> 00:22:52,720
it forward from between his teeth into
the cold air. How softly the turf

271
00:22:52,799 --> 00:22:56,759
had carpeted the untraveled avenue. He
could no longer feel the roadway beneath his

272
00:22:56,839 --> 00:23:03,200
feet. Doubtless by his suffering,
he had fallen asleep while walking. For

273
00:23:03,319 --> 00:23:07,400
now he sees another scene, Perhaps
he had merely recovered from a delirium.

274
00:23:07,960 --> 00:23:12,039
He stands at the gate of his
own home. All is as he left

275
00:23:12,079 --> 00:23:17,559
it, all bright and beautiful in
the morning sunshine. He must have traveled

276
00:23:17,559 --> 00:23:22,240
the entire night. As he pushes
open the gate and passes up the wide

277
00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:26,359
white walk, he sees a flutter
of female garments. His wife, looking

278
00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:32,000
fresh and cool and sweet, steps
down from the veranda to meet him.

279
00:23:32,599 --> 00:23:36,960
At the bottom of the steps,
she stands waiting with a smile of inefftable

280
00:23:37,079 --> 00:23:42,359
joy an attitude of matchless grace and
dignity, and how beautiful she is.

281
00:23:44,039 --> 00:23:48,960
He springs forward with extended arms.
As he is about to clasp her,

282
00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:53,240
he feels a stunning blow upon the
back of his neck. A blinding white

283
00:23:53,359 --> 00:23:57,359
light glazes all about him, with
a sound like the shock of a cannon.

284
00:23:57,839 --> 00:24:04,400
The gnaws darkness and silence. Peyton
Farquhar was dead, his body with

285
00:24:04,480 --> 00:24:10,759
a broken neck, swung gently from
side to side beneath the tempers of the

286
00:24:10,839 --> 00:24:17,599
Isle Creek Bridge. End of story.