gered forward conscious only of one thing, and that was a great and
growing pain in his elbow. That's where the first stone had grazed him
that his nephew had thrown down the pit, and he stopped and found he was
cut to the bone and bleeding a lot. The loss vexed him worse than the
pain, for he knew very well you can't lose blood without losing strength,
and he couldn't tell yet whether it might not be within his strength to
save him at the other end. So he slit a piece off the tail of his shirt
and tied it above his elbow so tight as he was able. Then he held on, but
knew too well he was getting spent. For a man well over fifty year can't
spend a night of that sort and find himself none the worse for it.

A bit farther forward there was a little more to breathe, and as the
tunnel dropped, he felt the air sweeter. And that put a pinch more hope
into him again. It was up and down with him and his mind in a torment, but
at last he tried not to think at all, and just let his instinct to fight
for life hold him and concentrated all his mind and muscle upon it. Yet
one thought persisted in his worst moments: and that was, that if he
didn't come through, his nephew wouldn't be hanged, but enjoy the two
farms for his natural life; and the picture of that vexed Amos so terrible
that without doubt 'twas as useful to help him as a bottle of strong
waters would have been.

On he went, and then he had a shock, for the torch was very near spent and
began to grow dimmer; so he put it out to save the dying rays against when
he might need them. And he slowed down and rested for half an hour, then
refreshed, he pushed slowly on again.

And things happened just as he expected they would do; for after another
spell, he was brought up short and he found the way blocked and knew that
he stood a hundred feet and no more from the mouth of the tunnel in a
grass-grown valley bottom among the rocks outside. But he might as well
have been ten miles away, and too well he knew it. The air was sweet here,
for where foxes can run, air can also go; but outlet there was none for
him, though somewhere in the mass of stone he doubted not there was a
fox-way. He turned on the torch then and shifted a good few big stones and
moved more; but he saw in half an hour the job was beyond his powers and
that if he'd been Goliath of Gath he couldn't have broke down that curtain
of granite single-handed.

He'd found a pool of water and got a drink and he'd satisfi