A civilian stands on a railroad bridge with a rope about his neck while soldiers enforce his imminent execution. The account shifts between the measured present, recollections of how he came to be captured, and an elaborate imagined flight as he falls. Intense physical sensations and altered perception dominate the middle section, collapsing time and distinguishing inner experience from outward fact. A final, disorienting revelation reframes the imagined escape as illusion and returns attention to the literal, inescapable circumstances of the hanging.