The Pleasure Cruise Mystery by Robin Forsythe Page A

No. 90.
    Back in his own quarters, Vereker sat down once more in his easy chair and gave himself up to thought. He was not quite sure of this man Colvin. There was something insincere about him, something which certainly did not inspire confidence. He was genial, plausible, easy-mannered, but his face suggested shiftiness rather than weakness. He was apparently no fool, and his adroit adaptation of action to conceal his hidden purpose, his swift, suspicious awareness warned Vereker that he must not take his man too lightly in any battle of wits. From Colvin his thoughts turned to Mrs. Mesado, to the quarrel in her cabin, to the missing necklace, to various incongruous factors that obstinately refused to fit into any rational scheme of things, and he grew more and more amazed as he slowly began to piece all he had learned into a constructive theory. At last, weary of speculation, he rose from his chair. The light of dawn was already throwing up the brilliant hues of the cretonne curtain drawn across his window. In a few minutes the steward would bring his morning fruit. It was hardly worth while trying to sleep. He drew the curtain of his window and looked out. The fog was dispersing and the ship’s engines were beginning to throb with a livelier pulsation. He picked up his safety razor and began to fit in a new blade. He was proceeding with this operation, his mind still intensely preoccupied with other matters, when he dropped a portion of the nickel-plated mechanism of the razor. He stooped to pick it up, but on striking the cabin floor it had bounded somewhere out of immediate view. He knelt down to search for it, and instantly his eye caught the glitter of something lying under the electric radiator. Thrusting his hand underneath the radiator, to his unbounded astonishment, he drew forth a rope of dazzlingly brilliant stones. One glance at the emerald pendant and the large emerald butterfly clasp forming part of the ornament informed him that it was Mrs. Mesado’s lost necklace.
    â€œWell I’m damned!” he exclaimed, and stood for some moments admiring the flashing blue and white radiance of the magnificent diamonds that hung in a shimmering loop from the fingers of his left hand.
    â€œNow, how the devil did it get there?” he promptly asked himself, and at once his thoughts flew to Colvin and to Colvin’s unexpected visit to his cabin an hour or so previously. No, there seemed no explicable connection between Colvin’s visit and this amazing discovery of Mrs. Mesado’s necklace. Colvin had been sincerely enough distressed at its loss; either that or he was a consummate actor. Then, as Vereker stood dumbfounded trying to fathom the import of this astonishing find, he remembered that arresting moment when he had heard the impact of some article striking his cabin floor, an incident which at the time he had been unable satisfactorily to explain. At once, too, his memory flashed back to the half-drawn curtain of his window, which he felt certain he had fully drawn on entering his cabin and switching on the light. Some one must have pushed back that curtain. A curious smile spread slowly across his features as he gathered the necklace of scintillating gems into a blazing heap in his left hand and then thrust them into his trousers’ pocket.
    â€œThat sheds a little more light on the subject,” he remarked to himself, and at that moment Fuller brought in a tray on which was a plate of fruit. Having eaten a few grapes, Vereker shaved, enjoyed the invigorating stimulus of a hot sea-water bath and quickly dressed. Leaving his cabin, he knocked on Ricardo’s door and was greeted with a sleepy “Come in!”
    â€œNot up yet, Ricky!” he exclaimed on seeing his friend still huddled up in bed, his dark head almost completely hidden beneath the clothes.
    Ricardo moved lazily, rubbed his eyes and finally sat up.
    â€œHow now, Algernon? Anything important to discuss with