Pagina 216 de 1294

At last he reached the turning. He turned down it more dead than

alive. Here he was half way to safety, and he understood it; it

was less risky because there was a great crowd of people, and he

was lost in it like a grain of sand. But all he had suffered had

so weakened him that he could scarcely move. Perspiration ran

down him in drops, his neck was all wet. "My word, he has been

going it!" someone shouted at him when he came out on the canal

bank.

He was only dimly conscious of himself now, and the farther he

went the worse it was. He remembered however, that on coming out

on to the canal bank, he was alarmed at finding few people there

and so being more conspicuous, and he had thought of turning

back. Though he was almost falling from fatigue, he went a long

way round so as to get home from quite a different direction.