"A man stood upon a railroad bridge. . . The man's hands were behind his back, the wrists bound with a cord. A rope closely encircled his neck" (Bierce 490).
"He unclosed his eyes and saw again the water below him. 'If I could free my hands,' he thought, 'I might throw off the noose and spring into the stream" (Bierce 492).
". . . he knew that the rope had broken and he had fallen into the stream. . . To die of hanging at the bottom of a river!-- the idea seemed to him ludicrous" (Bierce 493).
"They beat the water vigorously with quick, downward strokes, forcing him to the surface. He felt his head emerge; his eyes were blinded by the sunlight. . ." (Bierce 494).
"All that day he traveled, laying his course by the rounding sun. The forest seemed interminable. . . By nightfall he was fatigued, footsore, famished. The thought of his wife and children urged him on" (Bierce 496).
"Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge" (Bierce 496).
