“‘I’ve got her,’” he read aloud. “‘She thinks I’m you. Is this sufficient warning to you to keep out of this game? If not—you know what to expect.’”
He looked from the note back to Iff. “What does he mean by that?”
“How can I tell? It’s a threat, and that’s enough for me; he’s capable of anything fiendish enough to amuse him.” He shook his clenched fists impotently above his head. “Oh, if ever again I get within arm’s length of the hound ...!”
“Look here,” said Staff; “I’m a good deal in the dark about this business. You’ve got to calm yourself and help me out. Now you say Miss Searle’s your daughter; yet you were on the ship together and didn’t recognise one another—at least, so far as I could see.”
“You don’t see everything,” said Iff; “but at that, you’re right—she didn’t recognise me. She hasn’t for years—seven years, to be exact. It was seven years ago that she ran away from me and changed her name. And it was all his doing! I’ve told you that Ismay has, in his jocular way, made a practice of casting suspicion on me. Well, the thing got so bad that he made her believe I was the criminal in the family. So, being the right sort of a girl, she couldn’t live with me any longer and she just naturally shook me—went to Paris to study singing and fit herself to earn a living. I followed her, pleaded with her, but she couldn’t be made to understand; so I had to give it up. And that was when I registered my oath to follow this cur to the four corners of the earth, if need be, and wait my chance to trip him up, expose him and clear myself. And now he’s finding the going a bit rough, thanks to my public-spirited endeavours, and he takes this means of tying my hands!”
“I should think,” said Staff, “you’d have shot him long before this.”
“Precisely,” agreed Iff mockingly. “That’s just where the bone-headedness comes in that so endears you to your friends. If I killed him, where would be my chance to prove I hadn’t been guilty of the crimes he’s laid at my door? He’s realised that, all along.... I passed him on deck one night, coming over; it was midnight and we were alone; the temptation to lay hands on him and drop him overboard was almost irresistible—and he knew it and laughed in my face!... And that’s the true reason why I didn’t accuse him when I was charged with the theft of the necklace—because I couldn’t prove anything and a trumped-up accusation that fell through would only make my case the worse in Nelly’s sight.... But I’ll get him yet!”
“Have you thought of going to Hartford?”
“I’m no such fool. If that letter was posted in Hartford this morning, it means that Ismay’s in Philadelphia.”
“But isn’t he wise enough to know you’d think just that?”