Part 3 Summary

When Peyton falls through the bridge, he loses consciousness and appears dead. It is from this state that he awakes from a sharp pressure upon his throat and a sense that he is suffocating. Every fiber in his body is screaming in pain. The intellectual part of him is gone; he has the power to feel and that is all. That is enough. He feels his body swing like a big pendulum in a cloud.

Then suddenly, the light that has surrounded him disappears at the same time he hears a big splash, followed by a ringing in his ears. Everything has gone cold and dark. When his power of thought returns, he knows the rope has broken, and he is in the stream below the bridge. The noose, now wet, continues to strangle him, and he thinks of the irony of being...