"Skulker has caught a little girl, Sir," he replied; "and there's a lad here", he added, making a clutch at me, "who looks an out-and-outer!"
It is useless to clutch at a straw.
The careless, the slow, the unobservant, the lazy fail to see it, or clutch at it when it has gone.
I staggered and had to clutch at a chair for support.
