He heard the old palm branch fall, and the leopard spring to meet it.
Dragging himself upward, panting with exhaustion, Timokles succeeded in mounting through the hole to the outside of the roof.

His foot plunged through a mat.

He recovered himself, and crawling to a little distance from the hole, he lay down on the roof.

The sun was high in the heavens, but all the world became black to Timokles.
He lay there, faint, for hours.

When he could look up at last, the sun was descending toward the west.