the play, if you
please."

"Not yet," said Staff. "I've something else to talk about that I'd
forgotten. Manvers, the purser--"

"Good Heavens!" Alison interrupted in exasperation. She rose, with a
general movement of extreme annoyance. "Am I never to hear the last of
that man? He's been after me every day, and sometimes twice a day....
He's a personified pest!"

"But he's right, you know," said Staff quietly.

"Right! Right about what?"

"In wanting you to let him take care of that necklace--the
what-you-may-call-it thing--the Cadogan collar."

"How do you know I have it?"

"You admitted as much to Manvers, and Mrs. Ilkington says you have it."

"But why need everybody know about it?"

"Enquire of Mrs. Ilkington. If you wanted the matter kept secret, why in
the sacred name of the great god Publicity did you confide in that queen
of press agents?"

"She had no right to say anything--"

"Granted. So you actually have got that collar with you?"

"Oh, yes," Alison admitted indifferently, "I have it."

"In this room?"

"Of course."

"Then be advised and take no chances."

Alison had been pacing to and fro, impatiently. Now she stopped, looking
down at him without any abatement of her show of temper.

"You're as bad as all the rest," she complained. "I'm a woman grown, in
full possession of my faculties. The collar is perfectly safe in my
care. It's here, in this room, securely locked up."

"But someone might break in while you're out--"

"Either Jane is here all the time, or I am. It's never left to itself a
single instant. It's perfectly ridiculous to suppose we're going to let
anybody rob us of it. Besides, where would a thief go with it, if he did
succeed in stealing it--overboard?"

"I'm willing to risk a small bet he'd manage to hide it so that it would
take the whole ship's company, and a heap of good luck into the bargain,
to find it."

"Well," said the woman defiantly, "I'm not afraid, and I'm not going to
be browbeaten by any scare-cat purser into behaving like a kiddie afraid
of the dark. I'm quite competent to look after my own property, and I
purpose doing so without anybody's supervision. Now let's have that
understood, Staff; and don't you bother me any more about this matter."

"Thanks," said Staff drily; "I fancy you can count on me to know when
I'm asked to mind my own business."

"Oh, I didn't mean that--not that way, dear boy--but--"

At this juncture the maid entered with