He found himself at the walkway of the bridge across the river, which flowed by with oily darkness from left to right, bisecting the city. He stepped out onto the narrow passage, glancing now and then at the river, fifty or more feet below. Halfway across the bridge, he saw a shadowy figure standing at the railing, looking down at the river. As he came closer, he saw that it was a young girl.
While he watched in horror, she flung one leg over the railing, pushed her body upwards, and flung herself from the bridge. For a moment she seemed suspended in mid-air; a dark shadow of a bird-like thing, hovering. Then she fell with a scream and a flurry of threshing arms and legs, down and down to splash in the sluggish water below.
"What a great idea!" Dolgrath murmured to himself. "I should have thought of it myself. I've nothing to live for. So--why not?"
He rushed to the spot where the young girl had stood, threw his leg up and over the railing, just as she had done. Then he pushed himself up, as she had done. He tried to feel what she must have felt; and in truth, he was certain that he did. he would be a great actor after all. He would do it in the most lifelike manner imaginable. He would make it real.
He thrust his body forward, out into space. He imagined himself suspended there, just as the girl had seemed to hang suspended--and then he smiled broadly as he began to plummet down toward the oily waters of the river in what he was sure was the enactment of the most realistic death scene ever.