ths--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 laugh