do not appear
on your passenger list, and that they are moved from the stateroom they
now occupy to some other one. The records for the voyage must show that
that room was indeed unoccupied. You will also instruct the purser that
the tickets surrendered by Vard and his daughter are not to be turned
in, but, in case of inquiry, to be reported unused."

The Captain had listened carefully.

"On what pretext will I move these people?" he asked.

"The pretext must be found."

The Captain stroked his beard with a troubled air.

"I fear there is no second-cabin room empty--we are very crowded. Would
it matter if I brought them forward?"

Pachmann pondered a moment.

"No," he said at last. "On the whole, that might be better. You will
enter them on your passenger list by some other name--or, better still,
omit them altogether."

"But the immigration authorities!" protested the Captain. "You have
forgotten them!"

"We will think of them at the proper time," said Pachmann, impatiently.
"This is not the moment to make objections. I think you understand?"

Hausmann bowed.

"We will say good-bye, then, for the present," added the Admiral, with a
touch of irony. "We shall, perhaps, be forced again to call upon you."

A second time Hausmann bowed.

* * * * *

When Miss Vard entered her stateroom, that day, to brush her hair before
going to lunch, her nostrils were assaulted by a most unpleasant odour,
and, when a cursory inspection of the room failed to disclose its cause,
she summoned the steward and asked him to investigate. An hour later, a
white-capped official approached Mr. Vard, who was looking vainly
through the collection of books in the library for something he cared to
read, and informed him, with many apologies, that it would be necessary
for him to change his stateroom. Just what was wrong with No. 514 it was
impossible to say; but it could not be denied that there _was_ a bad
odour there, whose source had not been discovered, and the only
alternative seemed to be to shut it up until the end of the voyage and
then to overhaul it thoroughly.

"Very well," said Vard. "I have no objection to changing. But I cannot
understand how a cubicle with floor, ceiling and walls of steel, could
so suddenly become insanitary."

"It is a mystery to us also, sir, and one which we shall look into very
thoroughly. We regret it extremely."

"Not at all," said Vard, somewhat astonished that