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“Sympathy,” Isaac Bell smiled He touched the whiskey to his lips “Poor chaps were so embarrassed by their behavior… and I had had a drink or two” He peered into his glass “Seeood idea at the tirinned sheepishly “It felt jolly good to be a hero, even for a moment…”

“I appreciate your candor, Mr Bell I aeon has done his work it will be best if we all turn in for the night and let sleeping dogs lie”

“Krieg Rüstungswerk GMBH?” echoed Archie Abbott, who had traveled regularly back and forth to Europe his whole life Most recently, in the course of an extended honeyroundwork for overseas Van Dorn field offices “They’re a privateArearing up for a European war”

Isaac Bell had joined hile had blown The Mauretania was stea past Malin Head on the northern tip of Ireland, and as she left the Irish Sea in her wake, the liner had begun lifting her bow into unusually tall Atlantic swells, churning ruh weather ahead

“Why do you ask?”

“Do you recall the ht?”

“If I couldn’t hear it, how could I recall it?”

Bell told him what had happened Archie was crestfallen “Of all the darned tio to bed early All three overboard?”

“The one who tried to stab ot tossed by his boss And the boss under his own steam”

“You have all the fun, Isaac”

“What sort of lunatic drowns himself?”

Archie smiled “Is it possible he was afraid of a felloho had already floored two of his gang and was suddenly waving a gun?”

Bell shook his head “A man afraid would not have taken the time to throw his accomplice overboard No, he made sure there was no one left to confess Not even himself Lunacy”

“Are you sure he didn’t jump into a lifeboat?”

“Positive I went back and looked later He was along that open stretch in the middle where there aren’t any boats Ten yards at least from the nearest one”