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Gilette glanced along the deck with the air and manner of a man who is absolutely sure of his ground. He was not taking any risks, and indeed, he had rehearsed the coming drama carefully, and with a quite intelligent idea of what precisely was going to happen. The hour of the great denouement was at hand. And yet he was on the verge of something like a blunder.
There was no sign of Barros: he had gone down below feeling satisfied that all was well, and that he had got rid of Stephen Mallison in such a manner as would leave him free of suspicion, and that no awkward questions would be asked. In the dead of the night, on a calm sea and far away from the presence of witnesses he had put Stephen Mallison beyond reach of cross-examination and the power of speech. Nobody in La Hogue had any kind of interest in the young Englishman, and if any questions were asked it would be only necessary to say that he had gone as casually as he had come, indeed it was possible to suggest that he was only a chance acquaintance.