Sam was moved to urge caution. “Don’t be in too much of a hurry. We can wait.”
“Don’t you worry!” Poke retorted with a touch of dignity. “We’re going about this whole thing right. We’re going to look mathematically before we leap—understand?”
Sam interpreted this as meaning that the Shark had not yet completed his computations; and the Shark, on inquiry, admitted that this was the case.
“I’m not going to make any mistakes, if I can help it,” he declared. “Too serious business.”
“It surely is,” Sam agreed. “Broken bones are no joke.”
“Huh! It’s worse to find you’re wrong in your calculations!”
Sam surveyed the mathematician sternly. “Confound it, Shark! Can’t you be human?”
“I’m mighty human,” vowed the other. “I hate to have to confess I’ve blundered.”
“But everybody blunders sometimes.”
“Ought not to—not when it’s a case of mathematics.”