The captain nodded brusquely. His hands were in his coat-pockets; he
didn't offer to remove them. Iff blinked up at him and cocked his small
head critically to one side, persistently smiling.
"I've heard so much of you, sir," he said in a husky, weary voice, very
subdued. "It's a real pleasure to make your acquaintance."
Captain Cobb noticed this bit of effrontery by nothing more than a growl
deep in this throat. His eyes travelled on, above Iff's head, and Staff
was conscious of their penetrating and unfriendly question. He bowed
uncertainly.
"Oh--and Mr. Staff," said Manvers hastily.
"Well?" said the captain without moving.
"A friend of Miss Landis and also--curiously--in the same room with Mr.
Iff."
"Ah," remarked the captain. "How-d'-you-do?" He removed his right hand
from its pocket and held it out with the air of a man who wishes it
understood that by such action he commits himself to nothing.
Before Staff could grasp it, Iff shook it heartily. "Ah," he said
blandly, "h' are ye?" Then he dropped the hand, thereby preventing the
captain from wrenching it away, and averted his eyes modestly, thereby
escaping the captain's outraged glare.
Staff managed to overcome an impulse to laugh idiotically, and gravely
shook hands with the captain. He had already exchanged a glance with the
lady of his heart's desire.
An insanely awkward pause marked Iff's exhibition of matchless
impudence. Each hesitated to speak while the captain was occupied with a
vain attempt to make Iff realise his position by scowling at him out of
a blood-congested countenance. But of this, Iff appeared to be wholly
unconscious. When the situation seemed all but unendurable for another
second (Staff for one was haunted by the fear that he would throw back
his head and bray like a mule) Manvers took it upon himself to ease the
tension, hardily earning the undying gratitude of all the gathering.
"I asked Mr. Staff to come and tell you, sir," he said haltingly, "that
I spoke to him about this matter the very night we left
Queenstown--asked him to do what he could to make Miss Landis
appreciate--"
"I see," the captain cut him short.
"That is so," Staff affirmed. "Unfortunately I had no opportunity until
this afternoon--"
Alison interposed quietly: "I am quite ready to exonerate Mr. Manvers
from all blame. In fact, he has really annoyed me with his efforts to
induce me to turn the collar over to his care."
"Thank you," said Manvers bowing.
There was the faintest tinge of sarcasm in the acknowledgment. Staff
could see that Alison felt and resented it; and the thought popped into
his mind, and immediately out again, that she was scarcely proving
herself generous.
"It's a very serious matter," announced the captain heavily--"serious
for the service: for the officers, for the good name of the ship, for
the reputation of the company. This is the second time a crime of this
nature had been committed aboard the Autocratic within a period of
eighteen months--less than that, in fact. It was June, a year ago, that
Mrs. Burden Hamman's jewels were stolen--on the eastbound passage, I
believe."
"We sailed from New York, June 22," affirmed the purser.
"I want, therefore," continued the captain, "to ask you all to preserve
silence about this affair until it has been thoroughly sifted. I believe
the knowledge of the theft is confined to those present."
"Quite so, sir," agreed the purser.
"May I ask how it happened?" Staff put in.
The captain swung on his heel and bowed to Alison. She bent forward,
telling her story with brevity and animation.
"You remember"--she looked at Staff--"when we met in the saloon, about
half-past five, and went on deck?... Well, right after that, Jane left
my rooms to return the hat you had been showing me to your steward. She
was gone not over five minutes, and she swears the door was locked all
the time; she remembers locking it when she went out and unlocking it
when she returned. There was no indication that anybody had been in the
rooms, except one that we didn't discover until I started to go to bed,
a little while ago. Then I thought of my jewels. They were all kept in
this handbag"--she dropped a hand upon a rather small Lawrence bag of
tan leather on the table before her--"under my bed, behind the steamer
trunk. I told Jane to see if it was all right. She got it out, and then
we discovered that this had happened to it."
She turned the bag so that the other side was presented for inspection,
disclosing the fact that some sharp instrument had been used to cut a
great flap out of the leather, running in a rough semicircle from clasp
to clasp of the frame.
"It wasn't altogether empty," she declared with a trace of wonder in her
voice; "but that only makes it all the more mysterious. All my ordinary
jewels were untouched; nothing had been taken except the case that held
the Cadogan collar."
"And the collar itself, I hope?" Iff put in quietly.
The actress turned upon him with rising colour.
"You hope--!" she exclaimed.
The little man made a deprecatory gesture. "Why, yes," he said. "It
would seem a pity that a crook cute enough to turn a trick as neat as
that should have got nothing for his pains but a velvet-lined leather
case, worth perhaps a dollar and a half--or say two dollars at the
outside, if you make a point of _that_."
"How do you happen to know it was a velvet-lined leather case?" Alison
flashed.
Iff laughed quietly. "My dear lady," he said, "I priced the necklace at
Cottier's in Paris the day before you purchased it. Unfortunately it was
beyond my means."
"A bit thick," commented the purser in an acid voice.
"Now, listen"--Iff turned to face him with a flush of choler--"you keep
on that way and I'll land on you if it's the last act of my gay young
life. You hear me?"
"That will do, sir!" barked the captain.
"I trust so, sincerely," replied Iff.
"Be silent!" The captain's voice ascended a full octave.
"Oh, very well, very well. I hear you--perfectly." With this the little
man subsided, smiling feebly at vacancy.
Staff interposed hastily, in the interests of peace: "The supposition
is, then, that the thief got in during those five minutes that Jane was
away from the room?"
"It couldn't have happened at any other time, of course," said Alison.
"And, equally of course, it couldn't have happened then," said Iff.
"Why not?" the woman demanded.
"The girl was gone only five minutes. That's right, isn't it?"
"Yes, sir," said Jane.
"And the door was locked--you're positive about that?"
"Quite, sir."
"Then will anyone explain how any thief could effect an entrance, pull a
heavy steamer trunk out from under a bed, get at the bag, cut a slit in
its side, extract the leather case--_and_ the collar, to be
sure--replace the bag, replace the trunk, leave the stateroom and lock
the door, all in five short minutes--and without any key?" Iff wound up
triumphantly: "I tell you, it couldn't be done; it ain't human."
"But a skeleton-key--" Manvers began.
"O you!" said Iff with a withering glance. "The door to Miss Landis'
suite opens directly opposite the head of the main companionway, which
is in constant use--people going up and down all the time. Can you see
anybody, however expert, picking a lock with a bunch of skeleton-keys in
that exposed position without being caught red-handed? Not on your vivid
imagination, young man."
"There may, however, be duplicate keys to the staterooms," Alison
countered.
"My dear lady," said Iff, humbly, "there are; and unless this ship
differs radically from others, those duplicate keys are all in the
purser's care. Am I right, Mr. Manvers?"
"Yes," said Manvers sullenly.
"And here's another point," resumed Iff. "May I ask you a question or
two, Miss Landis?" Alison nodded curtly. "You kept the handbag locked, I
presume?"
"Certainly."
"And when you found it had been tampered with, did you unlock it?"
"There wasn't any need," said Alison. "You can see for yourself the
opening in the side is so large--"
"Then you didn't unlock it?"
"No."
"That only makes it the more mysterious. Because, you see, it's unlocked
now."
There was a concerted movement of astonishment.
"How do you make that out, sir?" demanded the captain.
"You can see for yourself (to borrow Miss Landis' phrase) if you'll only
use your eyes, as I have. The side clasps are in place, all right, but
the slide on the lock itself is pushed a trifle to the left; which it
couldn't be if the bag were locked."
There was a hint of derision in the little man's voice; and his
sarcastic smile was flickering round his thin lips as he put out one
hand, drew the bag to him, lifted the clasps, and pushing back the
lock-slide, opened it wide.
"The thot plickens," he observed gravely. "For my part I am unable to
imagine any bold and enterprising crook taking the trouble to cut open
this bag when the most casual examination would have shown him that it
wasn't locked."
"He might 've done it as a blind...." Manvers suggested.
"Officer!" piped Iff in a plaintive voice--"he's in again."
The purser, colouring to the temples, took a step toward the little man,
his hands twitching, but at a gesture from the captain paused,
controlled himself and fell back.
For a few moments there was quiet in the cabin, while those present
digested Iff's conclusions and acknowledged their logic irrefragable.
Staff caught Alison staring at the man as if fascinated, with a curious,
intense look in her eyes the significance of which he could not fathom.
Then the pause was brought to an end by the captain. He shifted his
position abruptly, so that he towered over Iff, scowling down upon him.
"That will do," he said ominously. "I'm tired of this; say what you
will, you haven't hoodwinked me, and you shan't."
"My dear sir!" protested Iff in amazement. "Hoodwink _you_? Why, I'm
merely trying to make you see--"
"You've succeeded in making me see one thing clearly: that you know more
about this robbery than you've any right to know."
"Oh, you-all make me tired," complained Iff. "Now you have just heard
Miss Landis declare that this collar of pearls vanished between, say,
five-thirty and five-forty-five. Well, I can prove by the testimony of
three other passengers, and I don't know how many more, to say nothing
of your smoke-room stewards, that I was playing bridge from four until
after six."
"Ah, yes," put in the purser sweetly, "but you yourself have just
demonstrated conclusively that the robbery couldn't have taken place at
the hour mentioned."
Iff grinned appreciatively. "You're improving," he said. "I guess that
doesn't get you even with me for the rest of your life--what?"
"Moreover," Manvers went on doggedly, "Ismay always could prove a
copper-riveted alibi."
"That's one of the best little things he does," admitted Iff cheerfully.
"You don't deny you're Ismay?" This from the captain, aggressive and
domineering.
"I don't have to, dear sir; I just ain't--that's the answer."
"You've been recognised," insisted the captain. "You were on this ship
the time of the Burden Hamman robbery. Mr. Manvers knows you by sight;
I, too, recognise you."
"Sorry," murmured Iff--"_so_ sorry, but you're wrong. Case of mistaken
identity, I give you my word."
"Your word!" snapped the captain contemptuously.
"My word," retorted Iff in a crisp voice; "and more than that, I don't
ask you to take it. I've proofs of my identity which I think will
satisfy even you."
"Produce them."
"In my own good time." Iff put his back against the wall and lounged
negligently, surveying the circle of unfriendly faces with his odd,
supercilious eyes, half veiled by their hairless lids. "Since you've
done me the honour to impute to me guilty knowledge of this--ah--crime,
I don't mind admitting that I was a passenger on the Autocratic when
Mrs. Burden Hamman lost her jewels; and it wasn't a coincidence, either.
I was with you for a purpose--to look out for those jewels. I shared a
room with Ismay, and when, after the robbery, you mistook me for him, he
naturally didn't object, and I didn't because it left me all the freer
to prosecute my investigation. In fact, it was due to my efforts that
Ismay found things getting too hot for him over in London and arranged
to return the jewelry to Mrs. Hamman for an insignificant ransom--not a
tithe of their value. But he was hard pressed; if he'd delayed another
day, I'd 've had him with the goods on.... That," said Iff pensively,
"was when I was in the Pinkerton service."
"Ah, it was?" said the captain with much irony. "And what, pray, do you
claim to be now?"
"Just a plain, ordinary, everyday sleuth in the employ of the United
States Secret Service, detailed to work with the Customs Office to
prevent smuggling--the smuggling of such articles as, say, the Cadogan
collar."
In the silence that followed this astounding declaration, the little man
hunched up his shoulders until they seemed more round than ever, and
again subjected the faces of those surrounding him to the stare of his
impertinent, pale eyes. Staff, more detached in attitude than any of the
others present, for his own amusement followed the range of Iff's gaze.
Captain Cobb was scowling thoughtfully. Manvers wore a look of deepest
chagrin. Jane's jaw had fallen and her eyes seemed perilously
protrudant. Alison was leaning gracefully back in her chair--her pose
studied but charmingly effective--while she favoured Iff with a scrutiny
openly incredulous and disdainful.
"You say you have proofs of this--ah--assertion of yours?" demanded the
captain at length.
"Oh, yes--surely yes." Iff's tone was almost apologetic. He thrust a
hand between his shirt and waistcoat, fumbled a moment as if unbuttoning
a pocket, and brought forth a worn leather wallet from which, with great
and exasperating deliberation, he produced a folded paper. This he
handed the captain--his manner, if possible, more than ever
self-effacing and meek.
The paper (it was parchment) crackled crisply in the captain's fingers.
He spread it out and held it to the light in such a position that Staff
could see it over his shoulder. He was unable to read its many closely
inscribed lines, but the heading "Treasury Department, Washington, D. C."
was boldly conspicuous, as well as an imposing official seal and the
heavily scrawled signature of the Secretary of the Treasury.
Beneath the blue cloth, the captain's shoulders moved impatiently. Staff
heard him say something indistinguishable, but of an intonation
calculated to express his emotion.