It Might Have Happened Otherwise

He popped up to a sitting posture and stared wildly about the dark chamber. He knew it was a suggestion from his inner self, yet so distinctly did he hear the words it seemed as if they must have been voiced aloud. Throughout the early morning he brooded over the suggestion. At first he could not discern any sense in it. Subconsciously, however, he had often noticed the lumberman’s trick of using a dove-hitch—two half-hitches—and gradually the recollection thrust itself above the threshold of consciousness. He believed he had succeeded.