Tom kissed her, with a choking sensation in his throat, and made a show of being confident of finding the searchers or an escape from the cave; then he took the kite-line in his hand and went groping down one of the passages on his hands and knees, distressed with hunger and sick with bodings of coming doom.
Tom la besa, sentint que un nus li escanyava la gorja, i va fer veure que confiava de trobar els cercadors o una eixida de la cova. Després, amb el cordill d'estel a la ma, ana davallant a les palpentes, a grapes i damunt els genolls, per un dels passadissos, devastat per la fam i emmalaltit per les pronostigues de les imminents acaballes.