So then he stood, bent double on two sticks, blinking and peering out at
the faces, wondering whether it was a roar of anger or welcome or
compassion that had broken out at his apparition, and smiling--smiling
piteously, not of deliberation, but because the muscles of his mouth so
moved, and he could not contract them again.
* * * * *
He understood presently that he was to lie down on the hurdle, with his
head to the horses' heels.
This was a great business, to be undertaken with care. He gave his two
sticks to a man, and took his arm. Then he kneeled, clinging to the arm
as a child to a swimmer's in a rough sea, and sank gently down. But he
could not straighten his legs, so they allowed him to lie half
side-ways, and tied him so. It was amazingly uncomfortable, and, before
he was settled, twice the sweat suddenly poured from his face as he
found some new channel of pain in his body....
An order or two was issued in a loud, shouting voice; there was a great
confusion and scuffling, and the crack of a whip. Then, with a jerk that
tore his whole being, he was flicked from his place; the pain swelled
and swelled till there seemed no more room for it in all God's world;
and he closed his eyes so as not to see the house-roofs and the faces
and the sky whirl about in that mad jigging dance....
After that he knew very little of the journey. For the most part his
eyes were tight closed; he sobbed aloud half a dozen times as the hurdle
lifted and dropped over rough places in the road.
Pages:
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496