“I would have dismissed the incident as something quite harmless had it not been for a piece of disturbing news given to us two days ago. You met Princess Promila at our table. You noticed she was not present last night. She is extremely upset by the apparent theft of a large and very valuable ruby she had in her possession. It is called the Star of Srinagar and is a priceless family heirloom.”

“She didn’t give you the jewel to put in the ship’s safe?” I asked.

He shook his head. “She likes to wear her jewelry. Besides she felt quite safe in the knowledge that her jewels were either on her person or in her jewel case in her cabin.”

“Was she wearing the ruby when it was taken?” I asked.

He shook his head. “It was in her jewel case, so she says. But she swears her personal servant never left her suite.”

“And could the servant maybe have been bribed to help with the robbery?” I asked.

“The servant is an old family retainer, so devoted that she sleeps at the bottom of the princess’s bed.”

I looked across at Darcy. “Do you think this is somehow connected to what I saw last night? Is that why you brought me up here?”

Darcy came over and perched on the arm of my sofa. “It’s possible,” he said.

“But if a jewel was stolen, the thief would hardly throw it over the side of the ship, would he? Not unless there was a boat waiting to pick it up below, and there wasn’t.”

Darcy nodded. “I agree it is perplexing. But the occupants of the cabins from which your object could have been thrown have sworn that they were not responsible for throwing anything out of their windows, and that nothing appears to be missing.”

“If you thought the item you saw thrown into the water was a person it must have been quite large,” the captain said.

I nodded. “It’s hard to say how large as it was hurtling down toward the ocean when I noticed it, but it was a good size.” I held my hands apart to demonstrate.

“And shape?”

“No definite shape. Someone mentioned the word ‘bundle’ and I think that describes it. Maybe various items wrapped in one bigger piece of cloth?”

Darcy shifted position on the arm of the sofa. “It would make perfect sense if people’s cabins had been robbed while a ball was going on, and the thief tossed down the items to be picked up by an accomplice, except that we are in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, nothing has been reported stolen last night, and we have seen no sign of any other ship around.”