Both these men were deeply troubled and suspicious, and once again I did my best to work the persuasive charm on them as I spoke.

“What has happened to Dr. Alexander Stoker?” I asked. “He is my personal physician, and I’m deeply concerned.”

The younger of the two men, a very red-faced man with an Irish accent, clearly did not believe what I was saying to him, and he could sense that something was very wrong with my manner and my speech. My only hope was to sink this individual into confusion so that he remained quiet.

But the other, the tall and educated Englishman, was much easier to spellbind, and he began to pour out the whole tale without guile.

Seems Dr. Stoker was not really Dr. Stoker, but a man from England named David Talbot, though why he had used the assumed name, he refused to say.

“You know, this Mr. Talbot had a gun on board this vessel, sir!” said the tall officer, while the other continued to stare at me in deep inarticulate distrust. “Of course this organization in London, this Talamasca, or whatever it is, was most apologetic, and eager to make things right. It was settled with the captain finally, and some persons at the home offices of Cunard. No charges were brought against Mr. Talbot when Mr. Talbot agreed to pack his belongings and allow himself to be escorted ashore and to a plane leaving immediately for the United States.”

“To where in the United States?”

“Miami, sir. In fact, I saw him to the flight myself. He insisted upon giving me a message for you, sir, that you should meet him in Miami, at your convenience. At the Park Central Hotel? He gave me this message any number of times.”

“I see,” I answered. “And the man who attacked him? The man at whom he fired the gun?”

“We haven’t found any such person, sir, though undoubtedly this man was seen on this ship earlier by any number of persons, and in the company of Mr. Talbot, it seems! As a matter of fact, that is the young gentleman’s cabin over there, and I believe you were in it, talking to the steward, when we arrived?”

“The whole thing is most puzzling,” I said in my most intimate and confiding manner. “You think this brown-haired young man is no longer on the ship?”

“We’re fairly certain of it, sir, though of course it’s quite impossible to engage in an all-out search of a vessel such as this. The young man’s belongings were still in the cabin when we opened it. We did have to open it, of course, what with Mr. Talbot insisting he’d been assaulted by the young man, and that the young man was also traveling under an assumed name! We have his luggage in safekeeping, of course. Sir, if you would come with me to the captain’s office, I think perhaps you could shed some light upon—”

I quickly averred that I knew nothing about all this, really. I hadn’t been in the cabin at the time. Indeed, I’d gone ashore yesterday in Grenada without ever knowing that either man was boarding the vessel. And I had disembarked this morning in Barbados for a day of sightseeing without ever knowing this shooting incident had taken place.