ed, truly and effectively, yet without a miracle, for the very act
of trust in the Almighty calmed his mind and set it free to consider
intelligently.

He could not hope to lift the beam. It was far too heavy. Being so
heavy, he knew it would have killed him outright if it had not been
checked in its descent, and partially supported somehow. Might he not,
then, scrape away the rubbish on which he lay until he should, as it
were, sink away from the beam? He tried at once, and managed to get his
right hand slightly under him. He could reach his haunch. It was a
terribly slow process, but by degrees the busy hand reached the waist,
drawing the rubbish out by small portions at a time. It seemed to him
as if hours were spent in these painful efforts. Still no appreciable
difference was made in his position, and he had by that time pushed his
hand as far up under his back towards his neck as it was possible to
turn it. Finding that he could scrape away no more in that direction,
he now sought to deepen the hollows already made. In doing so he got
hold of a brick, which he wrenched out with a desperate effort. The
result was instantaneous relief, for he seemed to subside, not much,
indeed, but sufficiently to permit of his breathing freely.

With a fervent exclamation of thankfulness he turned slightly round, and
drew his left arm out from the rubbish. He felt it anxiously. It was
bruised a good deal, but not broken.

Although so greatly relieved that he felt for a few moments almost as if
he had been delivered from death, the poor youth was still in a terrible
case. The space in which he was confined did not admit of his sitting
up, much less standing. What seemed to be a solid mass of the fallen
wall was above him, prevented from crushing him by the beam before
mentioned, while around him were masses of brick and mortar densely
packed.

Again exerting his lungs, the youth shouted with all his might, and then
paused to listen; but there was no reply. Then he shouted the name of
Manuela, in the hope that she might hear, and answer, if still alive.
But no answering voice replied.

Believing now that nothing could save him but a fixed purpose and a
prolonged desperate effort on an intelligent plan, he prayed again for
help, and then proceeded to enlarge his tomb by scraping the rubbish
back under the beam, from beneath which he had drawn himself, and
packing it tightly down. This enlarged the space, enablin