Then the pause was brought to an end by the captain. He shifted his position abruptly, so that he towered over Iff, scowling down upon him. "That will do," he said ominously. "I'm tired of this; say what you will, you haven't hoodwinked me, and you shan't." "My dear sir!" protested Iff in amazement. "Hoodwink _you_? Why, I'm merely trying to make you see--" "You've succeeded in making me see one thing clearly: that you know more about this robbery than you've any right to know." "Oh, you-all make me tired," complained Iff. "Now you have just heard Miss Landis declare that this collar of pearls vanished between, say, five-thirty and five-forty-five. Well, I can prove by the testimony of three other passengers, and I don't know how many more, to say nothing of your smoke-room stewards, that I was playing bridge from four until after six." "Ah, yes," put in the purser sweetly, "but you yourself have just demonstrated conclusively that the robbery couldn't have taken place at the hour mentioned." Iff grinned appreciatively. "You're improving," he said. "I guess that doesn't get you even with me for the rest of your life--what?" "Moreover," Manvers went on doggedly, "Ismay always could prove a copper-riveted alibi." "That's one of the best little things he does," admitted Iff cheerfully. "You don't deny you're Ismay?" This from the captain, aggressive and domineering. "I don't have to, dear sir; I just ain't--that's the answer." "You've been recognised," insisted the captain. "You were on this ship the time of the Burden Hamman robbery. Mr. Manvers knows you by sight; I, too, recognise you." "Sorry," murmured Iff--"_so_ sorry, but you're wrong. Case of mistaken identity, I give you my word." "Your word!" snapped the captain contemptuously. "My word," retorted Iff in a crisp voice; "and more than that, I don't ask you to take it. I've proofs of my identity which I think will satisfy even you." "Produce them." "In my own good time." Iff put his back against the wall and lounged negligently, surveying the circle of unfriendly faces with his odd, supercilious eyes, half veiled by their hairless lids. "Since you've done me the honour to impute to me guilty knowledge of this--ah--crime, I don't mind admitting that I was a passenger on the Autocratic when Mrs. Burden Hamman lost her jewels; and it wasn't a coincidence, either. I was with you for a purpose--to look out for those jewels. I shared a room with Ismay, and when, after the robbery, you mistook me for him, he naturally didn't object, and I didn't because it left me all the freer to prosecute my investigation. In fact, it was due to my efforts that Ismay found things getting too hot for him over in London and arranged to return the jewelry to Mrs. Hamman for an insignificant ransom--not a tithe of their value. But he was hard pressed; if he'd delayed another day, I'd 've had him with the goods on.... That," said Iff pensively, "was when I was in the Pinkerton service."