Part 15 (1/2)

”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 a.s.sented 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 steams.h.i.+p--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 embarra.s.sment 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, st.u.r.dy 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 c.o.c.ked 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 bowed uncertainly.

”Oh--and Mr. Staff,” said Manvers hastily.

”Well?” said the captain without moving.

”A friend of Miss Landis and also--curiously--in the same room with Mr.

Iff.”

”Ah,” remarked the captain. ”How-d'-you-do?” He removed his right hand from its pocket and held it out with the air of a man who wishes it understood that by such action he commits himself to nothing.

Before Staff could grasp it, Iff shook it heartily. ”Ah,” he said blandly, ”h' are ye?” Then he dropped the hand, thereby preventing the captain from wrenching it away, and averted his eyes modestly, thereby escaping the captain's outraged glare.

Staff managed to overcome an impulse to laugh idiotically, and gravely shook hands with the captain. He had already exchanged a glance with the lady of his heart's desire.

An insanely awkward pause marked Iff's exhibition of matchless impudence. Each hesitated to speak while the captain was occupied with a vain attempt to make Iff realise his position by scowling at him out of a blood-congested countenance. But of this, Iff appeared to be wholly unconscious. When the situation seemed all but unendurable for another second (Staff for one was haunted by the fear that he would throw back his head and bray like a mule) Manvers took it upon himself to ease the tension, hardily earning the undying grat.i.tude of all the gathering.

”I asked Mr. Staff to come and tell you, sir,” he said haltingly, ”that I spoke to him about this matter the very night we left Queenstown--asked him to do what he could to make Miss Landis appreciate--”

”I see,” the captain cut him short.

”That is so,” Staff affirmed. ”Unfortunately I had no opportunity until this afternoon--”

Alison interposed quietly: ”I am quite ready to exonerate Mr. Manvers from all blame. In fact, he has really annoyed me with his efforts to induce me to turn the collar over to his care.”

”Thank you,” said Manvers bowing.