Explore "The Knight's Move" by Blanche Colton Williams on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
CLASSIFICATION. A "problem" story: the setting forth in the guise of fiction of this question, "Shall a man useful to society lay down his life for a social member far inferior to himself? " The problem is argued through the concrete instance, and by two characters.
SUMMARY OF THE INSTANCE. When the _Argentina_ went down, Ferguson saved himself, rather than old Bronson or the Neapolitan peasant women and children. The world was the gainer by Ferguson's survival. Later, Ferguson loved and became engaged to a girl. One day as they were out walking, they saw a bandy-legged, sore-eyed youngster dash upon the railroad track in front of a train. Ferguson could just have saved the youngster at the cost of sacrificing himself, and although he alone knew this, he allowed the girl to understand that he had made a choice. She "rounded on him," and "spurned him in the grand manner. " Ferguson, loving the girl, died. He probably committed suicide, not because he had changed his own views, but because of assuming the girl's view to be correct. "He couldn't have admitted in words that she was right, when he felt her so absolutely wrong; but he could make that magnificent silent act of faith."