In removing the stopper which divided it from the outside world, the larva has expended its final store of liquid.

The cistern is dry, and in default of a living root there is no means of replenishing it.

My suspicions are well founded.

For three days the prisoner struggles desperately, but cannot ascend by so much as an inch.
It is impossible to fix the material removed in the absence of moisture; as soon as it is thrust aside it slips back again.

The labour has no visible result; it is a labour of Sisyphus, always to be commenced anew.