Their disappointment, therefore, may easily be conceived, when they learned that their warlike attack upon Astoria had been forestalled by a snug commercial arrangement; that their anticipated booty had become British property in the regular course of traffic, and that all this had been effected by the very Company which had been instrumental in getting them sent on what they now stigmatized as a
fool's errand. They felt as if they had been duped and made tools of, by a set of shrewd men of traffic, who had employed them to crack the nut, while they carried off the kernel.
I do not know why I had an inkling that it would appeal to Strickland's sense of humour to bring a furious stockbroker over to Paris on a
fool's errand to an ill-famed house in a mean street.
So we sat down under the rocks and groaned, and for one I wished heartily that we had never started on this
fool's errand. As we were sitting there I saw Umbopa get up and hobble towards the patch of green, and a few minutes afterwards, to my great astonishment, I perceived that usually very dignified individual dancing and shouting like a maniac, and waving something green.
``Assuredly,'' said Wamba, ``fool as I am, I shall not do your
fool's errand. Cedric hath another javelin stuck into his girdle, and thou knowest he does not always miss his mark.''
But it ended in nothing, and I will not be sent on a
fool's errand again."
It struck him at once that Philip had been sent for, and he was amused that he had been brought on a
fool's errand. If he could only avoid another of his heart attacks he would get well enough in a week or two; and he had had the attacks several times before; he always felt as if he were going to die, but he never did.
"Take my advice then, and do not go travelling about for long so far from home, nor leave your property with such dangerous people in your house; they will eat up everything you have among them, and you will have been on a
fool's errand. Still, I should advise you by all means to go and visit Menelaus, who has lately come off a voyage among such distant peoples as no man could ever hope to get back from, when the winds had once carried him so far out of his reckoning; even birds cannot fly the distance in a twelve-month, so vast and terrible are the seas that they must cross.
Neither my life nor yours would be worth anything if I went on such a
fool's errand.'
"Sorry to bring you out on such a
fool's errand, Watson," he said at last.
It was the cheapest shot in the game; the dear ones were sending old Theobald to Southampton on a
fool's errand yesterday afternoon, and showing one's own nose down Regent Street in broad daylight while he was gone; but some things are worth paying for, and certain risks one must always take.
Methodology aside, what some investors may be focusing on is factor timing, which is often a
fool's errand, but right now, it's clear quality is working.
'Again, we all know it's a
fool's errand. Why do it?