“From his own lips?”

“Yes, my friend, from his own lips.  In spite of your courage and coolness, I think I may say that you have no stronger desire than myself to die by the hand of the executioner.”

Julio put his hand to his throat and said, dejectedly: 

“The affair looks serious.  I seem to be strangling; I feel the rope around my neck.  It is all your fault, signor.  Why did you murder your best friend?  Did I not warn you that so frightful a crime would come to light?”

“Call it crime, if you will; but at least my just vengeance is satisfied, and now neither complaints nor recriminations can recall the past nor shelter us from danger.”

“But, signor, what can we do to escape punishment?”

“There is a means, easy and certain.  There is a means; but, Julio, it requires good will and resolution.  May I rely upon you for this last effort?”

“What would not one be willing to do in order to escape this gallows or the wheel?”

“Then listen to me.  I told you that the bailiff would search the cellars.  If he finds the corpse in my house, we are both ruined.”

“Certainly, signor.”

“But suppose it be found in another place, far from this spot, who would suspect us of the murder?”

“An excellent thought!” exclaimed Julio, joyfully.  “We must carry the dead body to a distant street and leave it there.”

“Not so.  They would naturally suppose that it had been removed to that spot from some other place.  A better plan is to throw it into the sewer in the Vleminck Field.  The officers of justice will then conclude that Geronimo fell under the hand of some unknown assassin.”

“That is still better!  Ah! signor, you frightened me without cause.  I place very little value on my life, and yet the thought of a certain death shatters my nerves.  Now I am myself again.  But how shall we manage to transport Geronimo’s body to the Vleminck Field?”

“It was for that purpose, Julio, that I was waiting so impatiently for you,” said Simon Turchi; “it was because I needed your aid to execute a project which will save us both.  Nothing is easier.  You will disinter the body, and you will throw it into the sewer."[24]

“Alone?” said the servant, in a tone which prognosticated a refusal.

“Why not alone, since you are able to do it?”

“It is very easy, signor, for you to say:  ’Take the body on your shoulders and traverse three or four streets.’  Signor Geronimo is heavier than you suppose, and I doubt if by the exertion of all my strength I could carry it twenty steps.”

Simon Turchi took his servant’s two hands in his, and said, supplicatingly: 

“Julio, my friend, be generous; it is not a difficult task for one like yourself.  Reflect that it is our only means of safety; it is as much for your interest as mine.  I will recompense you largely, and I will be grateful to you all my life.”