Already, after but an hour's durance, he was weak
and faint.
Then various expedients to attract attention began to present
themselves. By means of a stick he drew down the overhanging
branch of a tree and tied to it his handkerchief. He also managed
to insert a stick in the ground near him, and on its top placed
his hat, but he saw that they could not be seen through the thick
undergrowth at any great distance. Then more deliberately, and
with an effort to economize his strength, he again attempted to
undermine the rocks on which his leg rested, but found that they
ran under him and hopelessly deep. At intervals he would shout
for help, but his cries grew fainter as he became weak and discouraged.
"O God," he said, "there is just the bare chance that some one may
stumble upon me, and that is all;" and as the glen fell into deeper
and deeper shadow in the declining day, even more swiftly it seemed
to him that the shadow of death was darkening about him.
At last the bark of squirrels and the chirp and twitter of birds
that haunted the lonely place ceased and it was night. Only the
notes of fall insects in their monotonous and ceaseless iteration
were heard above the sighing wind, which now sounded like a requiem
to the disheartened man.
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