As I lay there with my heart sinking, I had the horrible feeling that the pursuit might be following me from behind, and that at any moment I would be enclosed between two fires.
For more than an hour I stayed there with my chin in the snow.

I didn't see any way out, and I was feeling so ill that I didn't seem to care.
Then my chance came suddenly out of the skies.
The wind rose, and a great gust of snow blew from the east.

In five minutes it was so thick that I couldn't see across the road.

At first I thought it a new addition to my troubles, and then very slowly I saw the opportunity.

I slipped down the bank and made ready to cross.
I almost blundered into one of the bicyclists.