Site of Bayard's First Accident|Nine-Mile Branch in Flags in the Dust (Location)

The narrative describes the scene in some detail: "The road descended in a quiet red curve between pines" to where "a creek ran beneath a stone bridge" (213). But the cues to its location on the map are subtler. As Pappy and John Henry drive the injured Bayard toward help, we learn that the road "emerges from the trees," then "crosses the flat valley" to "join the highway" (218). Because they stop at the highway to decide whether to drive Bayard to town or to the Sartoris place, this must be north of town. The specific place in which we locate the bridge and creek partly derives from the very similar description of the Nine-Mile Branch in Intruder in the Dust.