Part 19 (2/2)
Amids.h.i.+ps Staff descried Mrs. Ilkington's head and shoulders next to Miss Searle's profile. Arkroyd was with them and Bangs. Alison he did not see, nor Iff. As he hesitated whether or not to approach them, a steward touched his arm apologetically.
”Beg pardon--Mr. Staff?”
”Yes ...?”
”Mr. Manvers--the purser, sir--awsked me to request you to be so kind as to step down to Miss Landis' st.i.teroom.”
”Certainly.”
The door to Alison's sitting-room was ajar. He knocked and heard her voice bid him enter. As he complied it was the purser who shut the door tight behind him.
He found himself in the presence of Alison, Jane, Manvers and three men whom he did not know. Alison alone was seated, leaning back in an armchair, her expression of bored annoyance ill.u.s.trated by the quick, steady tapping of the toe of her polished boot. She met his questioning look with a ready if artificial and meaningless smile.
”Oh, you weren't far away, were you, Staff?” she said lightly. ”These gentlemen want to ask you some questions about that wretched necklace. I wish to goodness I'd never bought the thing!”
Her expression had changed to petulance. Ceasing to speak, she resumed the nervous drumming of her foot upon the carpet.
Manvers took the initiative: ”Mr. Staff, this is Mr. Siddons of the customs service; this is Mr. Arnold of the United States Secret Service; and this, Mr. Cramp of Pinkerton's. They came aboard at Quarantine.”
Staff nodded to each man in turn, and reviewed their faces, finding them one and all more or less commonplace and uninteresting.
”How-d'-you-do?” he said civilly; and to Manvers: ”Well ...?”
”We were wondering if you'd seen anything of Mr. Iff this morning?”
”No--nothing. He came to bed after I'd gone to sleep last night, and was up and out before I woke. Why?”
”He--” the purser began; but the man he had called Mr. Arnold interrupted.
”He claimed to be a Secret Service man, didn't he?”
”He did,” returned Staff. ”Captain Cobb saw his credentials, I believe.”
”But that didn't satisfy him,” Manvers put in eagerly. ”I managed to make him understand that credentials could be forged, so he wirelessed for information. And,” the purser added triumphantly after a distinct dramatic pause, ”he got it.”
”You mean Iff isn't what he claimed--?” exclaimed Staff.
Arnold nodded brusquely. ”There's no such person in the service,” he affirmed.
”Then he _is_ Ismay!”
The Pinkerton man answered him: ”If he is and I lay eyes on him, I can tell in two shakes.”
”By George!” cried Staff in admiration--”the clever little scamp!”
”You may well say so,” said Manvers bitterly. ”If you'd listened to me--if the captain had--this wouldn't have happened.”
”What--the theft?”
<script>