Act 1, Scene 4 Summary

Jones comes to a wide, flat road in the forest and stops to catch his breath. He relieves himself of his jacket and his spurs and heaves them into the bushes. As he talks to himself to convince himself that he did not see any ghosts and he did not really see Jeff, a small chain gang of Negroes appears. They carry picks and shovels and a prison guard with a rifle and a whip follows them.

Jones' eyes bulge when he sees this next apparition. The guard cracks his whip noiselessly and the men work silently. The guard points at Jones to join in and he begins shoveling with an imaginary shovel. Then when the guard turns his back, he tries to hit him but realizes that he really does not have a shovel in his hand at all. He...