be sure I made the most of that, I smoked it very, very slowly,
and I wouldn't like to say how long it lasted.

"From time to time I made fresh attempts to release my foot--all
unavailing, and all the more maddening because I could feel that my foot
wasn't much caught--only just enough to hold it. But enough is as good
as a feast! I felt that if I could get a straight pull at it I might get
it out, and several times I nearly went head first into the water,
overbalancing myself in the effort to get that straight pull. That
wasn't a pleasant sensation--not so bad, indeed, if one had got as far
as the water. But I pictured myself hanging from the log with a
dislocated ankle, and the prospect was not inviting.

"So the night crept on. I grew deadly sleepy, but of course I did not
care to let myself go to sleep; but worse than that was the stiffness,
and the cramp that tortured the imprisoned leg. You know how you want to
jump when you've got cramp? Well, I wanted to jump at intervals of about
a minute all through that night, and instead, I was more securely
hobbled than any old horse I ever saw. The mosquitoes worried me too.
Altogether it was not the sort of entertainment you would select from
choice!

"And then, just as day began to dawn, the sleepiness got the better of
me. I fought it unavailingly; but at last I knew I could keep awake no
longer, and I shut my eyes.

"I don't know how long I slept--it couldn't have been for any time, for
it was not broad daylight when I opened my eyes again. Besides, the
circumstances weren't the kind to induce calm and peaceful slumber.

"I woke up with a start, and in my dreams I seemed to hear myself crying
out with pain--for a spasm of cramp had seized me, and it was like a
red-hot iron thrust up my leg. I was only half awake--not realizing my
position a bit. I made a sudden spring, and the next moment off I went,
headlong!

"I don't suppose," said the Hermit reflectively, poking a stem of grass
down his pipe, "that I'll ever lose the memory of the sudden, abject
terror of that moment. They say 'as easy as falling off a log,' and it
certainly doesn't take an able-bodied man long to fall off one, as a
rule; but it seemed to me that I was hours and years waiting for the
jerk to come on my imprisoned foot. I'm sure I lived through half a
lifetime before it really came.

"Then it came--and I hardly felt it! There was just a sudden
pull--scarcely enough to hurt very much, and th