I think it hopeless.

But, try it! Yes, certainly, try it!" A pause, more eloquent than the most impassioned speech, showed how this frail straw, eddying in the vortex of their fate, might yet be clutched at.

San Benavides, trying vainly to guess what was being said, blurted forth an anxious inquiry.

His compatriot explained briefly.

Somehow, the measured cadence of their talk had a less reliable sound than the vigorous Anglo-Saxon.