Dr Bessner threw a considering glance over Cornelia.
"You will do very well, young lady," he announced. "You will not faint or be foolish, hein?"
"I can do what you tell me," said Cornelia eagerly.
Bessner nodded in a satisfied fashion.
The procession passed along the deck.
The next ten minutes was purely surgical and Mr Jim Fanthorp did not enjoy it at all.
He felt secretly ashamed of the superior fortitude exhibited by Cornelia.
"So, that is the best I can do," announced Dr Bessner at last. "You have been a hero, my friend." He patted Simon approvingly on the shoulder.
Then he rolled up his sleeve and produced a hypodermic needle. "And now I will give you something to make you sleep.
Your wife, what about her?"
Simon said weakly:
"She needn't know till the morning."
He went on: "I - you mustn't blame Jackie...
It's been all my fault.
I treated her disgracefully - poor kid - she didn't know what she was doing..."
Dr Bessner nodded comprehendingly.
"Yes, yes - I understand..."
"My fault -" Simon urged.
His eyes went to Cornelia. "Someone - ought to - stay with her.
She might - hurt herself -" Dr Bessner injected the needle.
Cornelia said, with quiet competence:
"It's all right, Mr Doyle.
Miss Bowers is going to stay with her all night..."
A grateful look flashed over Simon's face.
His body relaxed.
His eyes closed.
Suddenly he jerked them open.
"Fanthorp?"
"Yes, Doyle."
"The pistol... ought not to leave it... lying about.
The boys will find it in the morning."
Fanthorp nodded.
"Quite right.
I'll go and get hold of it now."
He went out of the cabin and along the deck. Miss Bowers appeared at the door of Jacqueline's cabin.
"She'll be all right now," she announced. "I've given her a morphine injection."
"But you'll stay with her?"
"Oh, yes.
Morphia excites some people.
I shall stay all night."
Fanthorp went on to the lounge.
Some three minutes later there was a tap on Bessner's cabin door.
"Dr Bessner?"
"Yes?" The stout man appeared.
Fanthorp beckoned him out on the deck.
"Look here - I can't find that pistol."
"What is that?"
"The pistol.
It dropped out of the girl's hand.
She kicked it away and it went under a settee.