It bewildered him, deprived him of the power to think.

A great many voices seemed to clamour around him, but only one could be clearly heard; only one, and that the voice of a child close to him--or was that also an illusion born of the racking strain that had driven all the blood to his head?
"You won't fail me, will you ?" it said.
Surely his grasp was slackening, his powers were passing, when like a flashlight those words illuminated his brain.

He was as one in deep waters, swamped and sinking; but that voice called him back.
He opened his eyes, he drew a great breath.

He flung his whole soul into one last great effort.

He remembered suddenly that the little English girl, the child with the glorious hair and laughing eyes, his acquaintance of an hour, would be looking for him exactly two weeks from that moment.