At last,
as our hero slipped the trifle back in his pocket again, the
mariner slowly recovered himself, though with a prodigious
effort, and drew a deep and profound breath as to the very bottom
of his lungs. He wiped, with the corner of his black silk cravat,
his brow, upon which the sweat appeared to have gathered. "Well,
messmate," says he, at last, with a sudden change of voice, "you
have, indeed, had a most wonderful adventure." Then with another
deep breath: "Well, by the blood! I may tell you plainly that I
am no poor hand at the reading of faces. Well, I think you to be
honest, and I am inclined to believe every word you tell me. By
the blood! I am prodigiously sorry for you, and am inclined to
help you out of your scrape.
"The first thing to do," he continued, "is to get rid of these
two dead men, and that is an affair I believe we shall have no
trouble in handling. One of them we will wrap up in the carpet
here, and t'other we can roll into yonder bed-curtain. You shall
carry the one and I the other, and, the harbor being at no great
distance, we can easily bring them thither and tumble them
overboard, and no one will be the wiser of what has happened. For
your own safety, as you may easily see, you can hardly go away
and leave these objects here to be found by the first-comer, and
to arise up in evidence against you.
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