Chapter 17 old gun

As he took the gun off his right shoulder with his right hand that had lost his index finger, a golden sun shrouded him.The sun was setting rapidly along a smooth arc, and the fields echoed with the sound of ebbing intermittently and the air of desolation from time to time.He carefully placed the gun on the ground covered with mottled coins and green moss.Looking at the wet ground when the gun fell, I felt very uncomfortable.This long-sapling purple wood-supported soil gun lay crooked on the wet ground, and the setting sun shone on a fringe of lost sorghum beside the gun.Sorghum produces a large cluster of fine, soft, tender yellow sprouts.The sorghum sprouts cast their shadows on the black barrel and the purple-red stock of the gun, which changed color.While undoing the gunpowder gourd stuck around his waist, he took off the black jacket, revealing the thick bones of his upper body.He wrapped the gun and gunpowder gourd in his jacket, put them away, took three steps forward, leaned over, stretched out his arms soaked in heavy sunlight, and moved a bundle of sorghum stalks in the big clump.

Floods occurred in autumn, tens of thousands of mu of waterlogged depressions were like oceans, sorghums held their dark red heads in the water, and teams of mice jumped on the heads of sorghums like nimble birds.When harvesting sorghum, the water reaches chest level. People wade through the water and use rafts to transport the sorghum tassels out. Red-finned carp and black-ridged grass carp rushing across the sorghum stalks with green aerial roots, and emerald green fishdogs burrow into the sorghum stalks from time to time. Go into the water, and come out of the water with a small silver fish in its mouth.In August, the flood gradually receded, exposing the road covered with mud, and there was still water in the depressions, forming large and small puddles.The cut sorghum stalks cannot be transported back, so they are dragged out of the water and placed on the road or on the high ground at the edge of Shuiwangzi.The beautiful sunshine shines on the low-lying fields, and there are few villages in a radius of tens of miles, each of which is shining brightly, and the sorghum clusters are like a group of towers.

With the bright and warm sun on his back and a large puddle where water accumulated, he dragged out bundles of sorghum stalks and built a square bunker half the height of a person on the edge of the puddle.He jumped into the bunker with his gun in his arms and sat down, with his head level with the upper edge of the bunker. He couldn't be seen from the outside, but he could clearly see the isolated island between the watery boy and the watery boy through the hole left. In Nizhu, you can also see the rose-colored sky and the brown earth.The sky seemed very low, the sun was covering the water surface redly, and the watery eyes stretched brightly and brilliantly into the hazy twilight, with needle-like rays of light dancing around the edges, like a circle of warm eyelashes.On the piece of mud in the middle of Wang Zi, which has now turned into light blue, a tuft of water and grass stands upright.Surrounded by streamers of light, this piece of mud seems to be floating gently. The more hazy the surrounding area, the brighter the water, and the stronger the drifting feeling of the mud. He felt that it was coming, and it was only a few steps away from him. Road, you can jump over it.There were no them on the Nizhu yet, and he looked up at the sky again in bewilderment, thinking, it's time.It's time for them to come.

Nor did he know where they came from.That day, after hauling sorghum stalks all afternoon, the captain said he was off work, and dozens of people walked home with swaying long shadows. He ran here for convenience, and suddenly saw them.At that time, he felt as if someone had punched him heart-warmingly, and his heart rested for a while before re-beating.A large number of wild ducks landed on the Nizhu dazzled his eyes.For more than a dozen nights, he hid in the sorghum bushes and observed them. He saw them always at this time of evening, quacking, as if flying from outside the sky.Before landing, they hovered gracefully over Wang Zi, like a large group of gray-green clouds that shuffled and swirled.Every time they fiddled with the airflow and landed on Nizhu, he was very excited.He had never found so many wild ducks concentrated in such a small area, never.

Should they come and not come, not come or not come?He felt nervous, and he even suspected that what he saw in the past was a phantom. He had never believed that there would be such a large group of wild ducks here.He heard the old people in the village tell the story of the god duck many times. The god ducks in the story are all pure white, but this group of wild ducks is not pure white.There are bright green feathers on the head and neck, a white ring around the neck, and the wings are like two blue mirrors. Are they male ducks?The whole body is yellowish brown, dotted with dark brown spots, are they female ducks?They are by no means god ducks, they left one piece after another of small green and brown feathers on the Nizhu.Looking at the feathers, he felt relieved, sat down, picked up the gown that was wrapped in guns and medicine gourds, and shivered, and immediately exposed the crooked gun and oily gourds.The gun lay peacefully on the sorghum straw, and the gun body was glowing with dark red oil. This color was very similar to iron rust. It had been covered with red rust several times, and the red rust had bitten the gun body into pits.But now it has no rust and he took two sheets of sandpaper to smooth out the red rust.It lay crookedly, like a hibernating green snake, and he felt that it would wake up at any moment, fly up, and whip the sorghum stalks with its steel tail, making the sorghum stalks crackle.When he reached out to touch the gun, the first thing he felt was that his fingertips were cold, and the coldness invaded his ribs, making him wince for a long time.The sun sank faster, deforming as it sank, flattening and flattening, bending and deforming as if a semi-fluid sphere had fallen on a smooth steel plate.Below it is a plane, and those arc-shaped surfaces are extremely tense, and finally thinned out, and the turbulent, cold red fluid flows zigzagging in all directions.The water puddle is quiet and mysterious, the bright red juice slowly seeps down from the water surface, the lower layer of the water is red and thick like soup, but the surface is a layer of colorless transparent water, extremely bright and dazzling.What he suddenly saw was a golden-ringed dragonfly hanging on a tall withered grass. The dragonfly's huge eyes were like two purple pearls, turning left and right to refract the light.

He grabbed the gun and laid it flat on his lap. The body of the gun extended to the back along the right angle formed by his leg and belly. The muzzle of the gun was squinting under his chin at the pale gray sky in the south.He took out a slender measuring tube from his pocket, lifted the lid of the medicine gourd, and filled the measuring tube with medicine.He poured the medicine in the measuring tube into the barrel of the gun, and immediately there was a smooth sound from the muzzle of the gun. Then, he squeezed a pinch of iron sand from a small iron box and stuffed it into the muzzle of the gun. There was a crisp sound.At this time, he pulled out the long gun scout from under the gun barrel, and used the knob-shaped round head to pound the gunpowder and iron sand in the gun barrel.His heart was beating irregularly, and he was trembling, as if tickling a sleepy-eyed tiger.After loading three tubes of gunpowder and three pinches of iron sand into the barrel, I felt cold in my heart, and dense cold sweat oozed from my forehead.With trembling hands, he took out the ball of cotton wool he had prepared earlier and blocked the muzzle of the gun.By this time he was very hungry and limp.He conveniently tore a grass root out of the ground, stroked the soil, put it in his mouth and chewed.Chewing grass, I felt even hungrier. At this time, I heard the whistling sound of wings flapping the air in the sky above Shuiwangzi.He had to make one last preparatory work at once, putting a flash cap on the gun.He cocked the tail-cocking bolt back, revealing a nipple-like projection attached to the barrel.The upper part of the protrusion is a round groove with a thin hole in the middle of the groove.He carefully peeled back the layers of paper, and pressed a golden fuse cap into the groove.The fire cap is filled with yellow gunpowder. As long as the trigger pecks the fire cap, the fire cap will explode and ignite the gunpowder in the gun barrel. At that time, a fire snake will rush out from the muzzle of the gun. , finally like an iron broom.It's all because this gun has been hanging on the gable wall of his house that looks like it has been painted with black glaze for so long. He understood the mystery of this gun without a teacher. When I came down to scrub, Jing felt very skilled.

Here comes the wild duck.At first they whirled in the air at a height of 100 meters, fluttering up and down, and gathered into a group, but then dispersed in a herd, piercing down from different directions, flying close to the bright red and translucent water.He knelt up, held his breath, and stared at the circles of purple halos.He gently poked the gun barrel out through the cracks in the sorghum stalks, his heart beating wildly.The flock of wild ducks was still spinning around, and the circle was big and small, as if even the watery ducks were spinning with them.Sometimes a few green drakes came close to touching the muzzle of his muzzle, and he saw their bright, sly black eyes and their tender green beaks.The sun is bigger and flatter, with blackened edges, but a spot in the middle is like melted iron, sparks are splashing rapidly.

The duck suddenly yelled, the male duck "quack quack", and the female duck "quack quack", forming a large piece.His lips trembled with excitement, and he knew that they were about to land.For more than ten days in a row, he observed them carefully, knowing that they were about to land after they blew.It had only been a few minutes since their shadows appeared in the sky, but he felt that a long, long time had passed, his stomach was convulsing violently, and he was hungry again.They finally landed, approaching the ground, suddenly stretched out their purple legs, spread their wings flat, and their snow-white tails were like open feather fans. After landing quickly, their inertia caused them to stagger two or three steps.The brown mud pillars suddenly changed color, and countless suns that changed color flashed on the colorful duck feathers, and the duck flock carried the sunlight, staggering like a shuttle.

He quietly raised the gun, the butt of the gun reached his shoulder, and pointed the muzzle at the group of wild ducks that were getting tighter and tighter.Another piece of the sun was missing, and it was crooked and out of shape.Some wild ducks lay down, some stood, and some flew low and then fell down.It's time, he thought, time to shoot, but he didn't.As he fumbled for the trigger with his hand, he suddenly felt extremely inconvenient, and he thought painfully of his index finger.It was missing two joints, except for the last one, which crouched like a stump between the middle finger and the thumb.

At that time, he was only six years old, his mother came back from his father's funeral, wearing a white cloth coat, with a braid around his waist, his hair was loose, his eyelids were swollen and transparent, his eyes became thin and long, and two streams of water shot out. Wang Wang's gloomy gaze.Mother called his name and said, "Da Suo, come here." He timidly walked over.The mother grabbed his hand, choked up twice, stretched her neck as if swallowing something hard, and said, "Da Suo, your father is dead, do you know?" He nodded, listening to his mother say again: " Your father is dead, you can't live if you die, you know?" He looked at his mother in bewilderment, and nodded vigorously. "Do you know how your father died?" Mother said, "Your father was killed by this gun. This gun was passed down by your grandmother. Don't touch it again. I will hang it on the wall." Now, you have to look at it every day, and when you look at it, you have to think about your father, and you have to study hard, look like a human being, and win the praise of your ancestors." Listening to his mother's words, he felt half-understood, but Nodding vigorously.

The gun hung on the gable of the house, which was black and shiny from decades of smoke.He sees that gun every day.Later, he was promoted from the first grade to the second grade. Every night, my mother hung a kerosene lamp on the gable wall to illuminate him and let him read.He felt dizzy when he saw the black letters in the book, and he kept thinking about the gun and the story of the gun.The wind from the desolate wilderness poured in through the window sills, pushing and pulling the flame of the oil lamp like the end of a writing brush, with a puff of black smoke flickering from the top of the flame.He seemed to be staring at the book, but he kept feeling the spirituality of the gun, and he even heard the gun creaking.Like seeing a snake, he wanted to see it but was afraid of seeing it.There it hung, the gun shoot down the butt and up, a sullen black gleam from the body.The gunpowder-filled waist gourd hangs on one side of the gun, overlapping with the gun. The thin waist of the gourd presses the trigger. The gourd is golden red, with the big end facing down and the small end facing up.The guns and gourds hang so high and so beautifully.The old guns and the old gourds hanging on the old gables disturbed his mind.One night, he stepped on a high bench to take off the gun and gourd, and looked at them under the lamp.Holding the heavy gun, he felt unbearable pain in his heart.Just then, Niang came from another room.The mother was not yet forty years old, and her hair was already gray. The mother said, "What are you doing?" He was holding a gun and a gourd in his hand.Mother asked, "What grade did you get in school?" He said, "Second to last." Mother said, "You're so disappointing! Hang up your gun!" He said stubbornly, "No, I'm going to kill— —" Mother slapped him on the mouth, and said: "Hang it up. You just have to study hard, remember." He hung up the gun, and Mother went to the stove to get a kitchen knife, and said calmly: "You hold out your index finger." He obediently held out his index finger.The mother pressed his index finger on the edge of the kang, and he twisted his body in panic. The mother said: "Don't move." The mother said: "You have to remember, don't move that gun." As the cold light fell, he felt a violent tremor transmitted from his fingertips to his shoulders, and his spine arched tensely.Blood slowly oozes from the severed finger.Mother cried and stopped the bleeding with a handful of quicklime... Looking at half a broken finger, his nose was sore.How many days have you not eaten meat?Can't remember.He clearly remembered the meat he had eaten.It's like never having enough meat once.When I saw fat wild ducks that day, I immediately thought of meat again.Immediately, he thought of the gun again. Mother chopped off a piece of his finger for the gun, and thinking about it gave goosebumps all over her body.In the end, he took off the gun, yesterday afternoon.Dust as thick as copper coins fell on the body of the gun, and cobwebs were connected in all directions.The cowhide gun belt had been bitten by bugs, and it would break if it moved.There was still a lot of gunpowder in the gourd, and he poured out the powder to dry, and found a golden cap.I was so excited that I held the fire cap, the only one, and immediately thought of my father, feeling lucky, where can I get this kind of fire cap now... I have no money, and even if I have money, I can't get a meat ticket; I am stupid, I'm not stupid and I can't get school, so what's the use of school?Looking at the severed finger, he comforted himself.Mother only chopped off one of his fingertips, and then the wound festered, and another section rotted away, and it became like this.Thinking about the past, he was full of hatred for this group of plump ducks, I want to kill you, I must kill you all!I will eat you, chew and swallow your bones.He thought, their bones must be crisp and fragrant.He put his middle finger in the trigger ring. He still didn't pull the trigger.Because, another group of wild ducks hovered and fell from the sky, like a group of spinning clouds.The wild ducks on the Nizhu were all in a mess, some stamped their feet on the ground, and some flew up, not knowing whether they were welcoming or angry at the arrival of their own kind.He looked at the flock of ducks in frustration, and gently drew his gun back.The sun turned into a pointed sweet potato shape, emitting green and purple rays.The golden-ringed dragonfly was startled by the wild duck, flew close to the surface of the water, and landed on his bunker.It hugs a sorghum leaf with its six legs and hangs down its long tail with a golden ring.He saw the two bright points of light on the dragonfly's eyes.The ducks gradually gathered together, calmed down, and the water surface pierced by the duck's feet gradually spread concentric circles around, and the circles collided with each other, squeezing out wrinkles. Two flocks of ducks make a flock.He thought, if there is a big net, he can cover it quickly... But he knows that he doesn't have a net, he only has a gun.He carefully took off the ignition cap, pushed aside the cotton ball blocking the gun, and poured gunpowder and three iron sands into the muzzle of the gun again... Once again, he aimed at the flock of ducks, his heart was full of ancient bloodthirsty desire, such a large flock Duck, it is such a thin gun barrel... He quietly backed away again, and put two more cartridges of medicine into the muzzle of the gun. Feel the weight of the gun.He pressed the trigger with his trembling middle finger, and the moment he fired, he closed his eyes for a moment. There was a sound of the gun trigger, and the nose of the machine pecked at the golden cap, but the gun did not fire.The circle of Shuiwangzi seems to be shrinking gradually, the purple air wandering between the sky and the earth is getting thicker, the red is getting lighter, the brightness of the water surface does not decrease, but it gradually becomes deeper.The ducks are so thick and beautiful and warm when they are crowded together.The duck feathers are smooth, smooth and gorgeous, and they seem to be staring at his muzzle with sly eyes, as if laughing at his incompetence.He took off the flash cap and looked at the marks left by the nose on the cap.There was a fishy and hot smell in the ducks, and the ducks rubbed each other to make a smooth and soft sound.He put the ignition cap back in, he couldn't believe that there was such a thing, father, grandma, didn't they all succeed in one shot?It has been more than ten years since my father died, but the story of my father is still circulating in the village.He vaguely remembered that his father was tall, with bumps and bumps on his face, and a yellow beard on his cheeks. Father's story has been vividly told by the villagers, and he can see pictures after closing his eyes.At first, it was on a gray-white dirt road leading to the field. Dad carried a heavy wooden columbine to sow sorghum, and walked back and forth with heavy-headed farmers.There are mulberry trees beside the road, and the mulberry leaves are as big as copper coins.There are birdsong.The grass on the side of the road is very green.The water in the ditch is not shallow, and there are frog eggs floating on the light yellow aquatic plants.The columbine pinned down on Dad's neck, and Dad was panting heavily.A bicycle came out of the slant and hit Dad. Dad staggered a few steps and did not fall, but the bicycle fell down.Dad put down the couch in a hurry, helped up the bicycle, and then the rider.The man was short in stature, and his knees creaked when he walked.Father said respectfully: "Officer Liu Gong."Officer Liu Gong said: You are blind.Dad said: You are blind, don't be angry.Liu: How dare you scold me?You son of a bitch!Dad: Police officer, you hit me.Liu: Let go of your mother's stinky farts!Dad: Don't curse, you hit me.Liu: ××××.Dad: You are being unreasonable.Some good officials in the old society were also reasonable.Liu: Oh, you mean the new society is not as good as the old one?Dad: I didn't say that.Liu: Counter-revolutionary!Rogue species!I broke you!Officer Liu Gong took out a box gun from his waist and pointed the black muzzle at Dad's chest.Father: I am not guilty of death.Liu: Rounding off, that's enough.Dad: Then you will collapse.Liu: I don't have any bullets.Dad: Get the hell out of here!Liu: I dare not collapse and you dare not beat you? Police officer Liu Gong jumped forward quickly, his knees creaked, and the long shoot of the box gun pierced his father's nose.Slowly black blood oozed from Dad's nose.The peasants came forward to drag the father away, and the older ones made amends to Officer Liu Gongan.Officer Liu Gong said angrily, "Forgive me this time."Dad stood aside, wiped the blood from his nose with his finger, lifted it up, and looked at it carefully.Liu: Let you know how powerful I am.Father: Folks, everyone has seen it and wants to testify for me. (wipes his face vigorously, blood is all over his face) Lao Liu, I'll fuck your eight generations of ancestors. Dad pressed forward step by step, and Lao Liu held up his gun and shouted loudly: "If you go further, I will shoot."Dad: Your gun is not breathing.Dad grabbed Lao Liu's wrist with all his strength, took the gun out, and threw it into the ditch viciously, splashing high waves.Dad pinched Lao Liu's neck, pushed him back and forth a few times, and kicked his ass lightly. Officer Liu Gong plunged into the ditch with his butt soaring, his head buried in the mud, and his legs were loud. slapping the water.The faces of the crowd paled, some slowly retreated, and some went down the ditch to drag the police officers up.An old man said to his father: Eldest nephew, run away!Dad said: Fourth Uncle, we will meet again on the road to Huangquan.Dad swaggered home. Officer Liu Gong was pulled out, crying like a child, crying, begging everyone to touch the gun for him, a dozen people went down the ditch, muddied the water, but did not touch the gun . Dad touched a long oil-paper bag from the dusty beam head, and unwrapped a crooked spear from the bag.Bright tears filled his eyes.The mother asked in surprise: "Is there a gun at home?"Dad said: Didn't you hear about my mother beating my father to death?Just use this gun.The mother was so frightened that she lost her eyes and said: Throw it away quickly.Dad said: No.Mother said: What are you going to do?Dad said: kill.Dad found another gourd and a tin box, and skillfully filled the gun with medicine and iron sand.Dad said: You must let Dasuo study hard.Let him look at this gun every day, only to watch but not to move.Do you remember?Mother said: Are you crazy?Father pointed a gun at mother: go back! Dad walked into the pear garden.The pear blossoms are like snow.Dad hung the muzzle of the gun down on a tree, tied the gun with a thin hemp rope, then leaned back on the ground, and put the muzzle of the gun in his mouth.He opened his eyes, looked at the golden bee, and pulled hard on the hemp rope.The pear blossoms are falling like snowflakes.A few bees fell off and died. He fired again, and the gun still went silent.He sat down dejectedly.The sun lay across the horizon like a fried dough stick, and its color was like the burnt yellow of a fried dough stick.Shui Wangzi shrank even smaller, the edge of the field became more and more blurred, and half of the white moon was already visible.On the stem of a tent of water plants in the distance, there are a few bugs shining with green light.The duck stuck its beak into its wing and looked at him mockingly.They are so close to him, and the darker the sky, the closer they are.His stomach was hot and uncomfortable, and countless oily cooked ducks were flying in front of his eyes.He pulled the trigger more than a dozen times in a row, and the fuse cap was deformed by the nose of the machine, and it was embedded in the groove and could not be taken out.Desperate, he leaned on the bunker as if his bones had been picked, and the sorghum stalks rattled.The wild ducks ignored his noise, neither flew nor called, like a pile of mottled pebbles.The sun disappeared, and the red and green lines between the sky and the earth also disappeared, showing the original color of gray and white.Crickets and oil bells start their wings and make continuous interpenetrating calls.He looked up at the clover-colored sky and almost cried.He looked sideways at the gun, hating it too.Is this the broken gun?Does this ugly broken gun really have such a mysterious experience? Wang Laoka's weaving is so vivid that all the old and young in the village are willing to listen to his weaving.Wang Laoka said: During the period of the Republic of China, we didn't care about the three counties here, there were as many bandits as a cow's hair, men and women were very aggressive, killing people was like cutting a watermelon.Have you heard about Dasuo's grandma?Dasuo's grandfather is a money gambler, and he relies entirely on his wife to live. The little daughter-in-law Dasuo's grandma can do it well. horse.Dasuo's grandma is so handsome, she is known as "Gai Bazhuang".She has slick toes, and her forehead-level bangs are like a blue silk curtain.In order to take care of the house, she spent one stone and two buckets of wheat in exchange for a gun.This gun has long shoots and a purple wooden handle.I heard that the gun was creaking in the middle of the night.With this gun on her back, she rode a tall horse and went to the wasteland to shoot foxes. The marksmanship was accurate, and it was designed to hit foxes in the butthole.Later, she fell ill and had a fever for seven to forty-nine days. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Dasuo's father went whoring and gambling wildly, and lost all the land and two big horses.When the winner went to pull the horse, Suo's grandma was panting slowly on the kang.At the time when Suo's father was five or six years old, when he saw someone coming to lead the horse, he shouted: "Mom, someone is pulling the horse!"Hearing this, he locked his grandmother and rolled off the kang, took off the gun from the wall, walked to the middle of the yard step by step, and shouted: What is the reason for pulling the horse for no reason?The two men pulling the horse had known the power of this woman long ago, so they said: Your man lost the horse to my shopkeeper.She said: If this is the case, please trouble the two brothers to find my man, and I will have a word with him.Locking his grandfather's name "Santao", he was afraid of his wife, and hid outside the door and dared not come in. When he heard the shout, he couldn't do it anymore, so he bit the bullet and pretended to be a hero, went into the courtyard, and said, "It's so hot."Locking his grandma smiled and said: You lost the horse?San Tao said: I lost.She said: If you lose a horse, what else do you lose?Sandao said: lose you.She said: what a Santao!We have no grievances, no enmity, no husband and wife, and it is my blessing to marry you.You lost my horse and my land. I was seriously ill for forty-nine days, and you didn't even pour me a bowl of water.You still want to lose me, rather than letting you lose me, let me lose you first.Sandao, next year today, I will take the child to burn paper round graves for you.There was only a bang, and the yard was red and full of flames... Grandpa died... Dad was still alive when he heard the story.He asked his father about the whereabouts of the gun, and his father roared angrily, "Get out of here!" The half of the moon shone brightly, and fireflies danced leisurely, drawing green arcs on his face.Shuiwangzi is a dark and obscure steel gray color.It was not yet dark, and he could still see the big greenish eyes of the Golden Ring Dragonfly.The sound of insects was louder and louder, and the stagnant moisture rose up in groups.He didn't look at the ducks anymore, he thought about the ducks, and felt his stomach cramp again.The image of the hunter with dead ducks tied all over his body overlaps with the heroine riding a horse and carrying a gun, and also overlaps with the tough-boned man buried by pear blossoms. The sun finally went out.Only a touch of light yellow warmth remained on the edge of the western sky.Half of the moon is at the southwest elevation angle, sprinkled with water-like tenderness.The fog rising from the water is like clumps of bushes. In the gaps of the fog, wild ducks appear and disappear, and there is the sound of big fish splashing water in the pond.He stood up intoxicated, moving his numb and stiff joints.Strap on your gourd, shoulder your gun, and step out of cover.Why can't it ring?He dropped the gun and looked at it with his hand. The moon shone on the gun, glowing blue.Why don't you ring?He thought, pulled the trigger, and hooked it casually. The dull sound of the explosion caused waves to roll over the autumn fields, and a ball of red light illuminated the water puddles and wild ducks.Shards of iron and sawdust splashed in all directions, and wild ducks flew in fright.He fell to the ground slowly, trying to open his eyes with great effort. He seemed to see the ducks fluttering around him like stones, falling on his body, piled up into a big mound, and pressed him hard to breathe.