Presently they would come to see how he had fared, and failing to find him in the water they would search the country round about.

He set himself in their place.

He tried to think as they would think, the better that he might realize how they would act, and then an idea came to him that might be worth heeding.

In any case his situation was still very desperate; on that score he allowed himself no illusions.

That they would take his drowning for granted, and never come to satisfy themselves, he was not optimist enough to assume.
He abandoned his grip of the wall and began to swim gently toward the eastern angle.