[ THE EXCITING STUFF BEGINS IN CHAP 4 ]


     Nineteen seconds, twenty seconds, 
twenty-one seconds.                    
     I could tell there was more than  
one person behind me, and they were    
about two seconds away.                
     I didn’t care. I had to see how   
far down it was, and if it wasn’t too  
far, I could jump.                     
     I slowed down a little to look    
over the side, but no way. It was over 
forty to fifty feet, and I was right   
over the riverbank, with big boulders  
everywhere.                            
     Out of the corner of my eye, I saw
four guys closing in on me, and took   
off running again. I wasn’t running    
because I was afraid of being beat up. 
I had a better reason.                 
     Twenty-four seconds, twenty-five  
seconds, twenty-six seconds.           
     While running, I had this irresis-
tible impulse to just dive over the    
side and take my chances, but thank    
God, because that’s when I saw both a  
tree to the left and a cop car up ahead
* on my right.                             
     I put on some extra speed and     
raced full blast towards the cop car,  
weaving in and out of a couple other   
cars that were between us.             
     The cop was just getting out when 
I pulled up.                           
     While breathing hard and counting 
in my head, I gave him my wallet,      
pointed to the guys chasing me and in  
between gasp, told him, “I saw one of  
those guys... throw a burlap bag into  
the river... something alive,” I       
gasped.                                
     “That was twenty-eight, twenty-   
nine seconds ago... I think... I think 
I can save what’s in the bag,” I       
finally finished.                      
     He didn’t even think about it.    
     “Go! I’ll see what I can do from  
up here,” he said and took my wallet   
from me, well, picked it up off the    
ground really. I was already running,  
as fast as I could, towards that tree. 
     Thirty seconds, thirty-one        
seconds, thirty-two seconds.           
     When I got close to where the tree
and bridge almost met, I got that      
irresistible impulse again, but I      
didn’t have time to think about it and 
just dived over the side.              
     I saw a branch, about twenty feet 
under me, and from there, it was about 
ten feet to the ground.                
     All of this didn’t register with  
me until after I’d already jumped.     
     I grabbed the branch on the way   
down, and almost got a good hold of it,
when it slipped out of my hands. I fell
the rest of the way, about ten feet,   
but still remembered to roll as soon as
I hit the ground.                      



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