ead on, Mr. Manvers," he wound
up with a dramatic gesture.

The purser nodded and turned toward the door. Staff jumped up and
followed the pair.

"You don't mind my coming?" he asked.

"No--wish you would; you can bear witness to the captain that I did
everything in my power to make Miss Landis appreciate the danger--"

"Then," Iff interrupted suavely, "the collar has disappeared--we're to
understand?"

"Yes," the purser assented shortly.

They scurried forward and mounted the ladder to the boat-deck, where the
captain's quarters were situated in the deckhouse immediately abaft the
bridge. From an open door--for the night was as warm as it was dark--a
wide stream of light fell athwart the deck, like gold upon black velvet.

Pausing _en silhouette_ against the glow, the purser knocked discreetly.
Iff ranged up beside him, dwarfed by comparison. Staff held back at a
little distance.

A voice from within barked: "Oh, come in!" Iff and Manvers obeyed. Staff
paused on the threshold, bending his head to escape the lintel.

Standing thus, he appreciated the tableau: the neat, tidy little
room--commodious for a steamship--glistening with white-enamelled
woodwork in the radiance of half a dozen electric bulbs; Alison in a
steamer-coat seated on the far side of a chart-table, her colouring
unusually pallid, her brows knitted and eyes anxious; the maid, Jane,
standing respectfully behind her mistress; Manvers to one side and out
of the way, but plainly eager and distraught; Iff in the centre of the
stage, his slight, round-shouldered figure lending him a deceptive
effect of embarrassment which was only enhanced by his semi-placating,
semi-wistful smile and his small, blinking eyes; the captain looming
over him, authority and menace incarnate in his heavy, square-set,
sturdy body and heavy-browed, square-jawed, beardless and weathered
face....

Manvers said: "This is Mr. Iff, Captain Cobb."

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 b