So another half minute passed; and now only one minute was left." "I don't see how you managed to be so confoundedly accurate in your reckoning.

How was it?
You didn't carry your watch in one hand, and feel about with the other, I suppose ?" "No; but I looked at my watch at intervals.

But never mind that.

Four minutes, as I said, were up, and only one minute remained, and that was not enough to take me back.

I was at the last gasp already, and on the verge of despair, when suddenly, as I crawled on, there lay the child-angel full before me, within my reach.
"Yes," continued Dacres, after a pause, "there she lay, just in my grasp, just at my own last gasp.