“To be out here in a small boat would be folly,” the captain said. “A ship our size could easily obliterate a small craft without even noticing it. And how would it have got this far from land? No. I have to say that the scenario you suggest is impossible. So the question is if not to hand something over to an accomplice then why throw something out of a window?”

“Somebody trying to get rid of something incriminating,” I suggested.

Darcy shook his head. “But what? What would you need to get rid of in the middle of the ocean that couldn’t easily be thrown out in New York Harbor?”

“If someone thought that cabins would be searched?” I said.

“Searched for the missing ruby, you mean?” Darcy asked. “Unfortunately it is extremely easy to hide a precious stone on a ship this size. Shove it among the life jackets, stick it into a potted palm. Our best hope is searching every passenger at disembarkation—and what a stink that will cause.”

“But the very act of throwing out the object has now brought about that very thing,” the captain said. He looked across at Darcy. Darcy put a hand on my shoulder, an action that gave me an instant electric shock and made me forget what we were talking about for a moment.

“Georgie, what you don’t know is that one of the reasons for the lifeboat drill was to search every cabin for the princess’s jewel. Obviously we didn’t have enough time to do the job really thoroughly but there were plenty of cabins we knew we didn’t need to search. Those families traveling in second class, elderly clergymen, aged spinsters . . .”

“What about the crew’s cabins? Did you search them too?”

“In this case it wasn’t necessary,” Darcy said. “You see the reason I am on this ship is that I’m on the trail of a notorious cat burglar, responsible for a string of jewelry robberies. We suspect he’s a gentleman. He always leaves behind a black glove at the scene and the burglaries take place at society gatherings. Whoever he is, he’s dashed clever, and daring. He’s lifted things from under people’s noses.”

“And left no trace, no evidence?”

“Not a thing, except that one of the gloves had the letters BOB written in ink on the label. Whether that was something put on by the manufacturer or the shop that sold it we don’t know. Since our burglar is meticulous we can assume that if he wrote it there, he wanted us to know something. He was teasing us.”

“You keep saying ‘he,’” I said. “You’re sure this is definitely a man?”