In the black darkness of the evening, he had walked directly over the edge of the chasm and fallen to the bottom, dislocating his ankle.
He was some miles from camp, and had used up all his ammunition except the one cartridge.

He had tried in vain to walk or even crawl out of the ravine, but had finally been overcome by exhaustion and lay there helpless, in the wild vastnesses of the mountains.
A desperate situation, indeed! Some time afterwards, he told me how he felt, when he realized how poor his chances were, when he saw he had only one cartridge left and found that he had scarce strength to answer a "halloo," should he hear one.

But soldiers never like to talk much about such things..