Determine the best meaning for the bolded words in the following passage.

poole, who had kept all the way a pace or two ahead, now pulled up in the middle of the pavement and in spite of the biting weather, took off his hat and mopped his brow with a red pocket-handkerchief. but for all the hurry of his coming, these were not the dews of exertion that he wiped away, but the moisture of some strangling anguish.

a tears

b sweat

c blood

d rain

i think the answer is d but i need a second opinion .