I realize I'm a little late in getting this up, so I sincerely apologize to my readers, and of course the Great and Powerful Mrs. Jones ;-)

" And now he became conscious of a new disturbance. Striking through the thought of his dear ones was sound which he could neither ignore nor understand, a sharp, distinct, metallic percussion like the stroke of a blacksmith's hammer upon the anvil; it had the same ringing quality. He wondered what it was, and whether immeasurably distant or near by -- it seemed both. Its recurrence was regular, but as slow as the tolling of a death knell. He awaited each new stroke with impatience and -- he knew not why -- apprehension. The intervals of silence grew progressively longer; the delays became maddening. With their greater infrequency the sounds increased in strength and sharpness. They hurt his ear like the trust of a knife; he feared he would shriek. What he heard was the ticking of his watch."

At the start of this paragraph, I was very confused. My first thoughts were. "Is this an escape attempt? Maybe the "bongs" are a signal." Unfortunately, the real reason isn't as exciting, but is nonetheless interesting ;-) These 'bongs" are the ticks of his watch (as you probably read in the quote above.) I get the feeling that the guy's overall feelings are, "Can we just get this over with?" as he is rather impatiently awaiting his death. If he were overly scared, we would have read of his watch ticks becoming faster, as if his time was running out. However, this is not the case, which is increasingly intriguing. Whatever the man did (we are not told what, which is very annoying.), he doesn't seem to think he doesn't deserve death, as I believe the book would have told us if he believed he was being served an injustice. Tell me your thoughts on this paragraph. Feel free to disagree. I find that disagreements make the most interesting conversations :-)