Staff slumped suddenly into a chair. "You're serious about that?" he gasped. "It's not a matter I care to joke about," said the little man gloomily. "But why didn't you tell a fellow ...!" "Why should I--until now? You mustn't forget that you sat in this room not twenty-four hours ago and listened to me retail what I admit sounded like the damnedest farrago of lies that was ever invented since the world began; and because you were a good fellow and a gentleman, you stood for it--gave me the benefit of the doubt. And at that I hadn't told you half. Why? Why, because I felt I had put sufficient strain upon your credulity for one session at least." "Yes--I know," Staff agreed, bewildered; "but--but Miss Searle--your daughter--!" "That's a hard one for you to swallow----what? I don't blame you. But it's true. And that's why I'm all worked up--half crazed by my knowledge that that infamous blackguard has managed to deceive her and make her believe he is me--myself--her father." "But what makes you think that?" "Oh, I've his word for it. Read!" Iff whipped an envelope from his pocket and flipped it over to Staff. "He knew, of course, where I get my letters when in town, and took a chance of that catching me there and poisoning the sunlight for me." Staff turned the envelope over in his hands, remarking the name, address, postmark and special delivery stamp. "Mailed at Hartford, Connecticut, at nine this morning," he commented. "Read it," insisted Iff irritably. Staff withdrew the enclosure: a single sheet of note-paper with a few words scrawled on one side. "'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."