Fahrenheit 451
by Ray Bradbury
Table of Contents
Part 3: Burning Bright
Montag learns that Mildred and her friends were the ones who had betrayed him. Faber persuades Montag to run, but Montag knows that he will be arrested once he has finished dousing his books. While Beatty is still beating Montag, Faber's green bullet falls out of his ear and is discovered by Beatty, who mentions that he will later track Faber. This energizes Montag, and he douses an unresisting Beatty with the flamethrower, burning him to death. He then knocks down the other two observing and docile firemen before torching the Hound, though not before the Hound injures his leg.
Montag flees with the terrible pain in his leg impeding his every move. In the meantime, the Seashell in his pocket warned the City to watch for a fugitive (namely Montag). Police helicopters were searching for him, as well.
While straining to walk calmly in order not to attract attention, a rushing car tries to knock him down. Raucous laughter tells him that it is children on their usual fun of driving their beetle (the super-fast car) and trying to kill someone. (A similar incident could very well have been the cause of Clarissa's death, too).
Passing the house of Mr. Black, another fireman, Montag plants some of the books that he managed to grab with him in Black's kitchen before calling in an alarm for the Salamanders to burn the fireman's house.
Seeking temporary refuge in Faber's house, Faber's television set informs them that an imported Mechanical Hound is on the tracks of the fleeing man, that this Hound never fails in its mission, and that the Hound is so powerful that "the Mechanical hound can remember and identify ten thousand odor indexes on ten thousand men without resetting." (133). The Mechanical Hound had already landed at the site of Montag's burnt former home.
Montag advises Faber to remove traces of odor of anything that he touched or anywhere that he walked so that he, Faber, would not be discovered. He also asks for a suitcase with Faber's dirtiest, oldest clothes and some whiskey, with which...
Sign up to continue reading Part 3: Burning Bright >