How to combine timeout and eval commands in bash -

for executing command stored in variable eval command used:

└──> a="echo -e 'a\nb' | wc -l" └──> eval $a 2 

but how can combined timeout command? i've tried following gives me wrong output:

└──> timeout 10 $a 'a b' | wc -l 

and following gives me errors:

└──> timeout 10 "$a" timeout: failed run command `echo -e \'a\\nb\' | wc -l': no such file or directory  └──> timeout 10 $(eval $a) timeout: failed run command `2': no such file or directory  └──> timeout 10 $(eval "$a") timeout: failed run command `2': no such file or directory 

the question can stand: how can sure following command executed properly?

timeout 10 "$program" "$opt1" "$opt2" ... 

this work

if timeout "$program" "$opt1" "$opt2" ... ;     echo program ran else     echo program terminated due timeout fi