matson knew full well that his friend wheatsheaf couldnt possibly survive the unforgiving conditions into which he had slipped and fallen , but the mental image of the man being swept away while he himself stood marooned like a petrified statue on the hill above the catastrophe ; so helpless to the cause that he may as well have not been there at all ; that agonising freeze-frame nightmare which remains fixed and vivid in the forefront of matsons mind the occasional buffeting from the wind outside and the pattern of his own breathing , as he inhales methodically before exhaling with a mixture of shock and anguish , are the only sounds in matsons world right now , though the agonising cries of a man being taken and carried by a merciless torrent like some kind of childrens toy , keep on returning at unbearable , regular intervals and reverberate through his psyche .