“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?”
“Yes, that primarily; but now, you know—because he was given so much rope—he’s vanished.”
“What!”