check 10 and then ten and eleven with the series continuing to an improbably high number after which there was a long pause in which ned could do nothing but breath into the phone waiting for confirming double checks ; which came , one by one , with startling rapidity : neg 1 , neg 2 , neg 3 , neg 4 , neg neg neg and then a long wait , ned waiting for one of the agents to realize his mistake and call in a revision , and the longer that call didnt come the more confused and paralyzed ned became .