"It seems to me, bo, that you're in a lady's private cabin yourself. I'm from police headquarters, bo!"
"Do you know whom you are addressing, fellow?"
"Say, nix on this fellow stuff. That'll be about all from you."
Maria Theresa interceded with her winsome grace and irresistible smile.
"Yes, Carlos, let me attend to the matter. Won't you come into the cabin, gentlemen, and be seated?"
The two detectives beamed, their bosoms heaved with pride at this unexpected recognition of their importance. They entered, waving away the steward and closing the cabin door behind them.
"We're just been discussing that mystery, Inspector!" observed Jarvis, coming nearer and taking his seat upon the trunk once more. This irritated the Duke, who added: "You are, I take it, one of the 'gum shoes'?"
Jarvis turned toward Maria Theresa, disregarding all properties due to the presence of the aristocracy, and yielded to that nervous twitching of the left eye which expresses such manifold meaning with such minimum of sound!
The detective whirled about, from his scrutiny of the cabin, walking toward the Duke. He fairly howled in the surprised nobleman's face:
"Gum shoe! Say, are you trying to kid me?"