As if in his sleep, he flung out his left arm and felt for the sign-board standing beside his bed.

The bed was soft.

Wogan wanted something hard, and it had occurred to him that the sign-board would very well serve his turn.

An idea, too, which seemed to him diverting, had presented itself to his mind.
With a loud sigh and a noisy movement such as a man halfway between wakefulness and sleep may make he flung himself over onto his left side.
At the same moment he lifted the white sign-board onto the bed.

It seemed that he could not rest on his left side, for he flung over again to his right and pulled the bedclothes over as he turned.