"Assist me?" sneered his companion. "Pretty assistance it's been! I tell you what it is, Benjamin Keppel, you're in a very tight place just now. You killed that—that woman there, and you know what the penalty is for murder."
"I know!" wailed the white-faced, despairing man.
"Well, if I might be permitted to advise, I'd make a clean sweep of the whole affair," said the man.
"What do you mean?"
"Simply this: we can't keep the body very long in this cabin without it being discovered. And when it is found, well, it will be all up with both of us. Of that there's but little doubt. I suggest this. Let us make at once for one of the Italian ports, say Leghorn, where you will land to transact some important business, and I'll land also. Then the Vispera will sail for Naples, to which port you will go by rail to rejoin her. On the way, however, the vessel disappears—eh?"
"Disappears! How? I don't understand."
"Is blown up."
"Blown up!" he cried. "And how about the guests?"
"Guests be hanged!"
"But there are eleven of them, beside the crew."