MD3PAD 700-702

[Toby G Levy]

        They make their escape from Baltimore successfully, wishing they
could stay longer, but knowing they must leave to avoid retribution for
Dixon's actions against the slave driver.

        Out on the York Road they feel like magnetic forces are on
either side of the road, pulling at them. Mason asks Dixon to explain,
but Dixon says it's a mystery.

        They pause at night near a church to hear a congregation singing
a hymn that underscores the uncertainty of life.

        Mason and Dixon now feel the line they built is a "conduit for
evil." They look upon their work in Delaware afterwards as atonement for
the sin of creating the line. They think back to talking about future
plans while working on the line.  One of them had the idea to construct
an eighty mile mall running alongside the visto.

        One of the axmen says he is a student of Blind Jack Metcalf, who
not only was famous as the first great English road-maker, but also was
involved in the Jacobite rebellion of 1745.

        Zhang warns them again of all the negative energy along a
straight road and the axman asks what is bad about the users of such a
road, including officers, merchant and express-riders, and Zhang
delineates the evils of all of them.

        Dixon notices Mason writing something that looks like verse, but
Mason says he is writing his epitaph.

Toby