The third was to be ready to answer questions at any moment, and to show in the answering that I had not followed the previous conversation.

Likewise, I must not prove myself a fool in these answers, for I had to convince them that I was useful.

It took some doing, and I felt like a witness in the box under a stiff cross-examination, or a man trying to play three games of chess at once.
I heard Stumm telling Gaudian the gist of my plan.

The engineer shook his head.
'Too late,' he said.

'It should have been done at the beginning.