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the doctor, and after a pause, “You might tell Mr. and Mrs. Colvin to come here quietly, Fuller. Never mind the maid for the present. Tell the Colvins that Mrs. Mesado has taken suddenly ill and that I’d like to see them as soon as possible.”
    Fuller departed and Doctor Macpherson, puffing unconcernedly at his cigarette, turned to Vereker and Ricardo.
    â€œThank you very much, gentlemen, for your assistance and the trouble you’ve taken. I won’t detain you any longer; I’m sure you must be tired. Captain Partridge may want to see you to-morrow. If so he’ll send for you. In the meantime I must ask you as a great favour not to let this matter go beyond yourselves. I’m sure you’ll see the necessity for keeping the other passengers in the dark. The matter doesn’t concern them, and a sudden death isn’t a particularly happy occurrence at the beginning of a pleasure cruise. May I rely on you?”
    â€œCertainly, doctor,” replied Vereker and Ricardo together.
    â€œThanks very much,” replied the doctor, and, wishing him good night, Vereker and Ricardo left Mrs. Mesado’s cabin and returned along the alleyway to Vereker’s quarters.

Chapter Four
    The pontifical manner leeches assume always gets my goat,” remarked Ricardo with heat as soon as Vereker and he were alone in the latter’s cabin. “I suppose Hippocrates started the stunt to cover his deficiencies, and his disciples have made it part of the ritual of medicine ever since.”
    â€œSound psychology, my dear Ricky. The public demands omniscience from the hierarchs of healing. The only way you can prevent the public from discovering that a certain amount of knowledge is not omniscience is to be mysterious and authoritative. Assurance is the greater part of suggestion, and suggestion the greater part of most cures.”
    â€œSo that’s the simple explanation, is it? Well, I wish Macpherson wouldn’t try to work the spoof off on me. Any fool could twig that he hadn’t the haziest notion of what had happened to Mrs. Mesado, and he didn’t take the slightest trouble to ask us anything about the business. Promptly took the attitude that the matter didn’t concern us at all, and told us to run away and play. Ergo, Macpherson’s an ass, and a Scots ass at that. He ought to have been brought up on carrots instead of oats.”
    â€œYou’re annoyed because you didn’t get more of the spotlight, Ricky. After all, the matter doesn’t really concern you. You were an accident.”
    â€œI never was an accident, Algernon. My parents considered even my birth an answer to prayer. I claim to be a protagonist in this drama. Didn’t I find Mrs. Mesado’s body?”
    â€œYes, and your vanity’s hurt because Macpherson ignored that minor fact in his general concern about major things. A death’s a pretty serious business on a pleasure cruise when you come to think of it.”
    â€œI suppose it is. When they find out, half the company, with smug hypocrisy, will go about with long faces as if they were deeply grieved. They’ll discuss it eagerly and pretend it has cast the inevitable gloom—yes, gloom’s the word—over the ship. They’ll have a high old time with condolences, and after fairly wallowing in a burial at sea they’ll forget all about it. In any case, that doesn’t justify Macpherson’s heavyweight manner with us. If I hadn’t given him my word I’d chastise him by blowing the gaff to all the passengers tomorrow morning. That’d cook his goose—I mean his porridge—for him!”
    â€œForget your grouch against Macpherson for the moment, Ricky, and tell me just how you came to discover Mrs. Mesado’s body lying on the deck,” asked Vereker calmly.
    Ricardo promptly opened Vereker’s cupboard and produced a bottle of whisky and glasses. Having poured out a liberal