le, I think you said?"

"No--Searle. At least, that was the name on her luggage."

"Oh--Searle, eh?"

"You don't happen to know her, by any chance?" Staff demanded, not
without a trace of animation.

"Who? Me? Nothing like that," Iff disclaimed hastily.

"I just thought you might," said Staff, disappointed.

For some moments the conversation languished. Then Staff rose and
pressed the call-button.

"What's up?" asked Iff.

"Going to get rid of this," said Staff with an air of grim
determination.

"Just what I was going to suggest. But don't do anything hasty--anything
you'll be sorry for."

"Leave that to me, please."

From his tone the assumption was not unwarrantable that Staff had never
yet done anything that he had subsequently found cause to regret.
Pensively punishing an inoffensive wrist, Iff subsided.

A steward showed himself in the doorway.

"You rang, sir?"

"Are you our steward?" asked Staff.

"Yes, sir."

"Your name?"

"Orde, sir."

"Well, Orde, can you stow this thing some place out of our way?"

Orde eyed the bandbox doubtfully. "I dessay I can find a plice for it,"
he said at length.

"Do, please."

"Very good, sir. Then-Q." Possessing himself of the bandbox, Orde
retired.

"And now," suggested Iff with much vivacity, "s'pose we unpack and get
settled."

And they proceeded to distribute their belongings, sharing the meagre
conveniences of their quarters with the impartiality of courteous and
experienced travellers....

It was rather late in the afternoon before Staff found an opportunity to
get on deck for the first time. The hour was golden with the glory of a
westering sun. The air was bland, the sea quiet. The Autocratic had
settled into her stride, bearing swiftly down St. George's Channel for
Queenstown, where she was scheduled to touch at midnight. Her decks
presented scenes of animation familiar to the eyes of a weathered
voyager.

There was the customary confusion of petticoats and sporadic displays of
steamer-rugs along the ranks of deck-chairs. Deck-stewards darted hither
and yon, wearing the harassed expressions appropriate to persons of
their calling--doubtless to a man praying for that bright day when some
public benefactor should invent a steamship having at least two leeward
sides. A clatter of tongues assailed the ear, the high, sweet accents of
American women predominating. The masculine element of the
passenger-list with singular unanimity--like bird