"It certainly was an unfortunate failure," I said. "But I don't see any utter mess. There is no chance of your being connected with the affair."
"But to have failed like that! When I had the thing done, absolutely done! I shall never forgive myself, never! The Company will never have a more perfectly arranged operation, and to mull it like that!"
I was hardly in the mood to contradict his well-deserved self-reproach. I only said, "How do you suppose it happened?"
"I've been trying to think it out. It may have been that there wasn't enough of the anæsthetic; or it may have been that the stuff of the bag let the air through. I can't make up my mind."
"Did you keep the bag on long enough?"
"Sure; five or six minutes."
"You timed it, I suppose?"
"No; I judged it."
"Then that was how you went wrong. I'd bet three to one, if there was any way of settling the matter, that you didn't keep the bag on two minutes. You never allowed for the way the minutes dragged while you were waiting in anxious excitement."
Chelubai's face fell even more miserable. "That makes it worse than ever. I shall never
