"Four," Thorne whispered. He looked at the four elevator cables. They were thick, braided steel, capable of holding tons.
He stopped. He was now four feet below the 40th-floor slab, hanging by one hand in the dark, damp throat of the building. He shone his flashlight onto the shaft wall. 4 39- feet
Rounded:
He looked at the note. 4. Then 39-.
He looked at the note again. The hyphen. It wasn't a subtraction sign. It was a pointer. An arrow. "Four," Thorne whispered
: If "4 39-feet" is describing dimensions of an area (which typically requires two measurements), it might imply an area of 4 feet by 39 feet. In this case, the area would be: the area would be: