Should I mend that and nail it up as though my body were still inside?
No--better leave it as it was--roughly broken open--it would serve my purpose better so.

As soon as I had finished all I had to do, I clambered through the private passage, closing it after me with extra care and caution, and then I betook myself directly to the Molo.

On making inquiries among the sailors who were gathered there, I heard that a small coasting brig was on the point of leaving for Palermo.
Palermo would suit me as well as any other place; I sought out the captain of the vessel.

He was a brown-faced, merry-eyed mariner--he showed his glittering white teeth in the most amiable of smiles when I expressed my desire to take passage with him, and consented to the arrangement at once for a sum which I thought extremely moderate, but which I afterward discovered to be about treble his rightful due.

But the handsome rogue cheated me with such grace and exquisite courtesy, that I would scarcely have had him act otherwise than he did.