"Shut up!" barked Mayo.
The girl was trembling, and he feared collapse.
Bradish began to blubber. "I'm not prepared to die," he protested.
Mayo studied his passenger for some time, wrinkling his brows. "Bradish,
listen to me a moment!"
The New-Yorker gave him as much attention as terror and grief permitted.
"There isn't much we can do just now to fix up our general earthly
affairs. But we may as well clean the slate between us two. That will
help our consciences a little. I haven't any quarrel with you any more.
We won't be mushy about it. But let's cross it off."
"It's all over," mourned Bradish. "So what's the use of bearing
grudges?"
"I suppose it's true that the court has indicted me for manslaughter.
Bradish, tell me, man to man, whether I've got to go into those breakers
with that on my conscience!"
"I don't know what you mean."
"Yes, you do! You know whether those men of the schooner Warren were
drowned by any criminal mistake of mine or not!"
Bradish did not speak.
"You wouldn't have said as much to Captain Downs if you hadn't known
something," insisted the victim of the plot.
"It was only what Burkett let drop when he came after some money. I
suppose he thought it was safe to talk to me. But what's the good of my
giving you guesswork? I don't know anything definite. I don't understand
sailor matters."
"Bradish, what Burkett said--was it something about the compass--about
putting a job over on me by monkeying with the compass?"
"It was something like that." His tone exhibited indifference; it
was evident that he was more occupied with his terror than with his
confession.
"Didn't Burkett say something about a magnet?"
"He got off some kind of a joke about Fogg in the pilot-house and
fog outside--but that the Fogg inside did the business. And he said
something about Fogg's iron wishbone."
"So that was the way it was done--and done by the general manager of the
line!" cried Mayo. "The general manager himself! It's no wonder I have
smashed that suspicion between the eyes every time it bobbed up! I
suspected--but I didn't dare to suspect! Is that some of your high
finance, Bradish?"
"No, it isn't," declared the New-Yorker, with heat. "It's an
understrapper like Fogg going ahead and producing results, so he calls
it. The big men never bother with the details."