According to Ford, Conrad's contribution to The Inheritors was very limited, and, in a work of 75,000 words, involved no more "than a thousand--certainly there cannot be two--of Conrad's writing; these crepitate from the emasculated prose like fire-crackers amongst ladies' skirts." (22) After this original simile, Ford proceeds to give a rather detailed but somewhat long and biased example of the way in which the elder writer contributed to the novel's writing. His baguette is a winner, too, with a skin that crepitates when you bite down and roughs up the roof of your mouth.