"The fire was spreading throughout the room. I picked Tobe up and carried him out into the hall. We'd gone to a cockfight that afternoon, and afterward we were riding back to the captain's house together. He was singing some of his war songs, and when we passed the bridge, he spurred his horse and headed for the fence at the corner of the lawn. It wasn't much of a jump, but the horse stumbled at the edge of the road, and when the captain's foot caught in the stirrup, he went down against the fence like a sack of meal."