Yet he just as often failed to get a single movement from the mechanism.
"I reckon you might about as well give it up," remarked Lieutenant Jack Benson coolly.
"What's the use of giving up," Eph demanded, "as long as there's any life left in us ?" "I mean," the young lieutenant explained, "that you'd better give up this particular attempt and make a try at something else." "All right, if you see anything else that we can do," proposed Eph dryly.

"Say, here's a quarter to pay for your idea." Seemingly as full of mischief as ever, Eph Somers pressed a silver coin into Jack Benson's hand.
But Jack, plainly impatient with such trifling, frowned slightly as he turned and pitched the quarter forward.
"This isn't a twenty-five-cent proposition," Benson remarked.
"In fact, all the money on earth won't save us this time!".