Weak as it was it had strength enough for this in its mad efforts to eat.

Why make mad efforts to realise it?

Then I saw Jones plunge down the ravine and bounce here and there in mad efforts to catch the whipping lasso.

The unhappy victims, finding themselves hemmed in on every side, ran this way and that in their mad efforts to escape.

Failing in this, down he plunged fifty feet straight towards the bottom, making the reel hiss by his mad efforts to escape.

But merciful nature brought relief, and stopped him in his mad efforts, or he had been a frozen corpse long ere the dawn.