"But----" and he shrugged his shoulders.
"But it's one of the ninety per cent, which go wrong, eh ?" Hillyard finished the sentence with bitterness.

Disappointment was heavy upon both men.

Hillyard, too, was tired by the tension of these last sleepless days.

He had not understood how much he had counted upon success.
"Yes, it's damnably disheartening," he cried.

"I thought these tubes might lead us pretty straight to B45." "B45!" The exclamation came from Jose Medina, who was leaning against the doorpost of the saloon, half in the room, half out on the sunlit deck.
He had placed himself tactfully aloof.