Slattery, his gaze fixed upon her, smiled admiringly. He had very even white teeth. Then he looked up at me. “I hear that your friend is the famous O’Shea,” he said. “I thought he was a movie actor.” The words told me plainly that this was another victim of the distracting Nanette. Therefore I forgave him. “His appearance is certainly deceptive,” I admitted. “We were on their right at the time he was recommended for the V.C.,” Slattery went on. “I was only a pup, but _we_ saw some dirty work, too. The crack regiments always get the limelight, though.” Nanette glanced at him under suddenly lowered lashes, and: “Please, Mr. Decies, lead me to a cool drink with lemon in it,” she said. She was on her feet in one graceful movement. Her ability to disentangle herself from complicated poses resembled that of an antelope. Grasping my right arm and the left of my startled Scottish companion, she moved away. “Captain Slattery is so good-looking that he bores me,” she whispered in my ear. O’Shea found me some little time later. “I have ventured to have you put at a table among strangers,” he said. “Your immediate neighbour is a certain Dr. Zimmermann.” He stared at me. “I’ll do my best, O’Shea,” said I. “Where are _you_?” “At the purser’s table,” he replied, “facing one John Edward Wainwright, of Halifax, Nova Scotia. These two birds may prove to be black swans, but there isn’t another query in the passenger list.” I experienced Dr. Zimmermann at lunch and later at dinner. Apart from his audible enjoyment of the soup, I found his table manners genial. He had been studying the neolithic fauna of South Africa on behalf of some learned Munich institution blessed with a name that only Dr. Zimmermann could pronounce and that I shall never attempt to spell. My report to O’Shea was unsatisfactory. “He seems fairly true to type,” I said. “If he is not what he professes to be, he carries it well. How about your man?” O’Shea shrugged in his curious way. “He obviously knows Halifax,” was the reply. “His line appears to be steam trawlers. Having unaccountably neglected the subject of steam trawlers, I am rather at a disadvantage here.” “I am equally rusty,” I confessed, “upon the neolithic fauna of South Africa.” There was dancing on deck that night. Nanette danced with the faithful three in turn and with Slattery. Slattery secured more than his fair share because of the powerful backing of “Mrs. P.” Nanette was dancing with me, in a curiously abstracted way, when suddenly she grew animated. Her eyes sparkled. She floated in my arms lightly as a feather. Following her glance, I saw O’Shea watching us. When I had deposited Nanette with the guardian Mrs. Porter, I returned to find O’Shea; for he had signalled to me. He was standing just inside the smoke-room door. “Adolf Zara is active,” he said in a cautious voice. “What do you mean?”