laughing and joking at the hideous sight that greeted their eyes , they took the prisoner by the arms and dragged him from the cell , threw his limp form in the back of a tumbril , and drove the cart some six miles , out into the bushland surrounding what was to eventually become the premier city of that faraway land , and awakened him by hauling on his ankles until his body slid from the back of the cart and landed , face-down on the hard-baked earth .