"For almost an hour," he begins. "I waited, rested, kept hoping something would change. It didn't. Eventually I started going over my stuff, trying to figure out what exactly to do next. Then all of a sudden I heard something clatter behind me. I turned around and there lying on the floor, just off to the side here, was the third quarter. [He holds up the coin] If Tom dropped it say a few minutes after Reston reached the top, then it's been falling for at least fifty minutes. I'm too muddled to do the math but it doesn't take a genius to realize I'm an impossible distance down. [114]

"I don't know how I'm going to get back. The radio's dead. If I can find my pack and Jed's, I'll have water and food for at least three days with maybe four days worth of batteries. But what will that do? Non gratum

anus rodentum , [115] Hell."