"In my luggage, without my knowing it. Never a suspicion, you see, until this afternoon. Gaa! what a situation. Well, you see, I had an urgent radiogram I had to send off to somebody at home—"
"Oh?" said Miss Glenn, sitting up and eyeing him suspiciously.
"Yes. To my old man. So I went up to the wireless-room. The operator said he'd just received a message for me. He also said, 'This looks like code. Will you check it over and make sure it's all right?' Code. Ho-ho! I glanced over it, and it seemed so queer that I read it aloud. You must remember, what with the excitement of going away and things on board here and all, I'd forgotten that little performance entirely. Besides, the radiogram was unsigned; I suppose Uncle Warpus didn't dare…" Warren shook his head sadly, a weird turbaned figure with the cigarette hanging from one corner of his mouth and his face scrubbed like a schoolboy's. Then he took the cable from his pocket. "It said, ' found traces in sweeping out. Hiller —' that's his butler; old family retainer; wouldn't squeal if Uncle Warpus pinched the silver out of the White House—' Hiller nervous. They look like bears. Is this real reel. Urgent no hitch in sarcasm effaced. Advise about bears.'"
"Eh?" demanded Captain Valvick, who was puffing slowly.
"That's the closest he could take a chance on coming to it," Warren explained. "Bears in the zoo. But it's not the sort of thing that makes much sense when it's sprung on you unexpectedly. I argued it out with the wireless operator, and it wasn't until ten minutes later that it struck me — how the devil was I to know Uncle Warpus had sent it? So I couldn't connect up the words; then suddenly it hit me.
"Well, I rushed down here to my cabin. It was getting dark, and besides, the curtain was drawn over the porthole… but there was somebody in here."
"And of course," said Morgan, "you didn't see who it was?"
"When I get that low-down" — snarled Warren, going off at a tangent and glaring murderously at the waterbottle— "when I find — no, damn it! All I knew was that it was a man. He had my film-box over in the corner, half the tins with their lids off (I found this later) and had the right roll in his hands. I dived for him, and he let go a hard one at my face. When I grabbed him I grabbed a piece of the film. He cracked out again — there isn't much space in here, and the boat was pitching pretty heavily — then we staggered over against the washstand while I tried to slam him against the wall. I didn't dare let go of the film. The next thing I knew the whole cabin went up like a flashlight powder; that was his blackjack on the back of my head. I didn't quite lose consciousness, but the place was going round in sparks; I slugged him again, and I was bent over the part of the film I had. Then he yanked the door open and got out somehow. I must have been knocked out for a few minutes then. When I came to, I rang for the steward, sloshed some water on my head, and discovered—" With his foot Warren raised the tangle of film on the floor.
"But didn't you see him?" asked the girl, in her fluttering concern, again taking hold of his head and causing an agonised "Ow!" She jumped. "I mean, old boy, that, after all, you were fighting with him…"
"No, I didn't see him, I tell you! It might have been anybody… But the question is, what's to be done? I'm appealing to you for help. We've got to get that piece of film back. He got — maybe fifty feet of it. And that's as dangerous as though he'd got all of it."