He seemed cool, collected, impassive; but the major, of hotter Celtic blood, could not suppress his fidgety nervousness.
Intermittently he gnawed at his reddish mustache.

A cigar, he felt, would soothe and quiet him.

Cigars, however, were now forbidden.

So were pipes and cigarettes.

The Master did not intend to have even their slight distraction coming between the minds of his men and the careful, intricate plan before them.
As the racer veered north, up the broad darkness of the Hudson--the Hudson sparkling with city illumination on either hand, with still or moving ships' lights on the breast of the waters--Bohannan murmured: "Even now, as your partner in this enterprise--" "My lieutenant," corrected the Master.
"As second in command," amended Bohannan, irritably, "I'm not wholly convinced this is the correct procedure." He spoke in low tones, covered by the purring exhaust of the launch and by the hiss of swiftly cloven waters.