“We never have a shipwreck.”
“Good. In case of a fire, then——”
“We never have a fire——”
“Good! In case of sinking——”
“I give in,” he said, laughing. “To what do we expose you, though, Madame?”
“To the very worst of deaths: to a blow on the head with an axe, to a dagger thrust in our back, or merely to be flung into the water——”
He attempted to speak, but again I continued:
“There are seven hundred and fifty emigrants below, and there are scarcely three hundred of us, counting first-class passengers and the crew. You have boats which might save two hundred persons, and even that is doubtful——”
“Well?”
“Well, what about the emigrants?”