"You, too, eh?" said Whistler, with the air of one whom nothing surprises now. "You, too?"
"The whole bed was changed, Captain, that's all. And I'm just wondering why. Look here — it won't take a second. Lift off that bedding and look underneath at the mattress."
This, allied with Morgan's absent expression as he blinked at the bed, was too much for the captain's grim-faced attempt to listen to everybody's side of the case. He picked up the pillow and slammed it down on the berth.
"I'll do no such damn fool thing, sir!" he said in what Started to be a bellow but trailed off as he remembered where he was. "I've had about enough of this. You may be right or you may not. I won't argue, but I've got more Important things to attend to. To-night I'm going to call a conference and start one of the finest-toothed-comb searches that you ever heard of on sea or land. That elephant's aboard, and, strike me blind, I'll find it if I have to take this tub apart one plate from another. That's what I'm going to do. And to-morrow morning every passenger will come under my personal observation. I'm master here, and I can search the cabin of anybody I like. That's what I'm going to do. Now, if you'll kindly get out of my way—"
"Look here, Skipper," said Morgan, "I admit we wouldn't be much help, but why don't we join forces?"
"Join forces?"
"Like this. I admit appearances are against us. We've told you a story you don't believe, and nearly given you apoplexy. But in all seriousness, there's a very sound reason behind everything. It's a big thing — bigger than you know. And why don't you believe us?"
"I believe," said the captain grimly, "what I see and hear, that's all."
"Yes, I know. That's what I'm kicking about," the other nodded. He got out his pipe and absently knocked the bowl against his palm. "But we don't. If we did, what do you suppose we should have thought when we walked up and found you sitting bunged-up and gibbering on a wet deck, with an empty whisky-bottle beside you and babbling wildly about your lost elephant?"
"I was perfectly sober," said the captain. "If any illegitimate lubber," said the captain, lifting a shaking arm… "if any illegitimate lubber refers again to what was pure misfortune—"
"I know it was, sir. Of course it was. But it's six of one and half a dozen of the other, don't you see? The misfortunes are precisely alike. Symbolically speaking, as Mr. Baldwin says, they are elephants and bears. And if you insist on having your elephants, why shouldn't you allow Curt his bears?"
"I don't understand this," said the captain dazedly. "I'm a plain man, sir, and I like plain speaking. What are you getting at? What d® you want?"
"Only this. If I were to sit down at the breakfast table to-morrow morning and tell only what I had seen to-nigh — Oh, I don't say I would, of course," said Morgan assuming a shocked expression and also closing one eye significantly. "I only use the illustration as an example you understand—"
This was the sort of plain speaking the captain clearly comprehended. For a moment his head rose in appalling wrath out of the collar of the waterproof.
"Are you," he said thickly, "trying to blackmail—"
It took all Morgan could do, with a swift tactical change, to smooth him down. But it was like a shrewd lawyer's inadmissible question to the witness at a trial which the judge orders the jury to disregard: the suggestion had been put forth, and the effect made. An effect had been made, unquestionably, on the captain.
"I didn't mean anything," Morgan insisted. "Lord knows, we won't be much help. But all I wish you'd do is thin. We're as interested as you are in catching this crook. If you'd keep us posted as to any developments—"
'i don't see any reason why I shouldn't," growled the Other after a pause, during which he cleared his throat Several times. Whistler's eye and jaw were paining him considerably, as Morgan observed; it was much to his credit that he could keep his temper down to a simmering point. Still, ramifications were beginning to suggest themselves to him, and it was apparent that he did not like them. "I don't see any reason why I shouldn't. I tell you straight, right here and now, to-morrow morning I'm going to haul all of you up to Lord Sturton and make you tell him the story you told me. If it weren't so late, I'd take you all up now. Oh, you'll be in it, right enough…
"I'll tell you frankly, Mr. Warren," he added, in a rather different tone, and swung round on him, "that if it weren't for your uncle, you certainly wouldn't get the consideration you are getting. And I'll be fair. I'll give this cock-and-bull story of yours a chance."
"Thanks," said Warren dryly. "And I can take my oath Uncle Warpus will appreciate it if you do. And how?"
"Mr. Baldwin!"
"Sir?"
"Make a note of this. To-morrow morning you will Institute an inquiry, with whatever reason or pretext you like, to find out whether any passenger on this boat got an injury along the fines you've heard described. Be discreet, burn you! or I'll have your stripes. Then report to Mr. Morgan. Now I've done all I can for you," he snapped, turning round, "and I'll bid you good night. But, mind I expect co-operation. Co-operation. I've done a good ileal already, and if so much as one word of all this is breathed, God help you!… And you want to know the truth, Mr. Warren," said Captain Whistler, his Cyclops eye i suddenly bulging past all control, "I think you're mad, sir. i think you're stark, raving mad, and these people] are shielding you. One more questionable action, sir, just one more questionable action, and into a strait-waistcoat 1 you go. That's all!!!'&—£&&"'£&£% Va % Va!!!???!… j Good night." j
The door closed with a dignified slam, and they were j alone. j
Brooding, Morgan stared at the floor and chewed at the i stem of his empty pipe. Besides, his eyes would keep: wandering to the berth; and he did not like to think of j that. The Queen Victoria was pitching less heavily now, ^ so that you could feel the monotonous vibration of the screw. Morgan felt cold and unutterably tired. He jumped I as voices began to sing and glanced up dully. Peggy Glenn and Curtis Warren, with seraphic expressions on their faces (at two o'clock in the morning) had their heads together and their arms round each other's shoulders; they! were swaying slowly as they uplifted throats in harmony:
"Oh, a life on the ocean wave [sang these worthies] A ho-ome on the ro-olling deep… I A life on the ocean wave.
"Shut it, will you?" said Morgan, as Captain Valvick uttered a hoot of approval and joined his unmusical bass to me chorus. "Aside from the fact that there are people hereabouts trying to sleep, you'll have the captain back in here."
This threat quieted them in the middle of a bar. But they shook hands all around, gleefully, and Warren insisted or shaking Morgan's hand in a shoulder-cracking grip. The Englishman studied them: Valvick draping himself affably over the washstand, and Peggy and Warren chortling on the berth. He wondered if they had any idea what had really happened. He also wondered if it would be wise to tell them.
"Hoy," said Warren in admiration, "I don't mind telling you it was a swell piece of work. It was great. It was the MM." He waggled his hand high in the air and brought it down on his knee. "That crack about elephants and bears, and the horrible threat to spill the beans on that incorrigible souse, Captain Whistler… yee! Great! You are hereby elected Brains of this concern. Henceforth anything you say goes. As for me, I'm going to be good, and how. YOU heard what the old sea-terrier said."
"Au, sure," agreed Valvick, with a ponderous gesture. "But it iss going to be all right in de morning. He find de emerald. Whoever hass de cabin where Miss Peggy t'row It In ton going to wake up in de morning and see it. And dere you be."