“Can’t help that.”
“Why didn’t you want Blumpitty?”
“Too old.”
“Why, he’s only forty something.”
“We’ve got to have young men for this job.”
“Then you think it’s very—”
“No.” Cheviot cut her short. “Not if the right men are doing it—a mere matter of precision,” and he was going back.
But Mrs. Locke kept him yet a moment. “I’ve just heard if one of those ropes is cut the fraction of a second before the others the boat’ll be dragged under?”
“It’s got to be done simultaneously, of course, on a signal,” he answered quietly. “I’ve just been explaining to Hildegarde it isn’t a job for bunglers.”
“They say it oughtn’t to be attempted unless by a disciplined crew.”