"

"Ah!" said the little man appreciatively--"I am a deep one, ain't I?"

He laid a finger alongside his nose and looked unutterably enigmatic.

At this point they were interrupted: a man burst into the smoking-room
from the deck and pulled up breathing heavily, as if he had been
running, while he raked the room with quick, enquiring glances. Staff
recognised Mr. Manvers, the purser, betraying every evidence of a
disturbed mind. At the same moment, Manvers caught sight of the pair in
the corner and made for them.

"Mr. Ismay--" he began, halting before their table and glaring gloomily
at Staff's companion.

"I beg your pardon," said the person addressed, icily; "my name is Iff."

Manvers made an impatient movement with one hand. "Iff or Ismay--it's
all one to me--to you too, I fancy--"

"One moment!" snapped Iff, rising. "If you were an older man," he said
stiffly, "and a smaller, I'd pull your impertinent nose, sir! As things
stand, I'd probably get my head punched if I did."

"That's sound logic," returned Manvers with a sneer.

"Well, then, sir? What do you want with me?"

Manvers changed his attitude to one of sardonic civility. "The captain
sent me to ask you if you would be kind enough to step up to his cabin,"
he said stiltedly. "May I hope you will be good enough to humour him?"

"Most assuredly," Iff picked up his steamer-cap and set it jauntily upon
his head. "Might one enquire the cause of all this-here fluster?"

"I daresay the captain--"

"Oh, very well. If you won't talk, my dear purser, I'll hazard a shrewd
guess--by your leave."

The purser stared. "What's that?"

"I was about to say," pursued Iff serenely, "that I'll lay two to one
that the Cadogan collar has disappeared."

Manvers continued to stare, his eyes blank with amazement. "You've got
your nerve with you, I must say," he growled.

"Or guilty knowledge? Which, Mr. Manvers?"

A reply seemed to tremble on Manvers' lips, but to be withheld at
discretion. "I'm not the captain," he said after a slight pause; "go and
cheek him as far as you like. And we're keeping him waiting, if I may be
permitted to mention it."

Iff turned to Staff, with an engaging smile. "Rejecting the guilty
knowledge hypothesis, for the sake of the argument," said he: "you'll
admit I'm the only suspicious personage known to be aboard; so it's not
such a wild guess--that the collar has vanished--when I'm sent for by
the captain at this unearthly hour.... L