"Good morning, Mr. Phelps." "Details of a plan by an unfriendly country to force devaluation of U.S. currency were concealed by one of our agents on this 41-carat emerald for transit to us." "This is Victor Tomar, an international arms dealer who sells to anyone." "By mistake, the emerald has fallen into his possession." "Without question, if he becomes aware of the information on the stone, he will use it to his own advantage." "The day after tomorrow, Tomar, with the emerald, will board the S.S. Queen of Suez at Beicosia en route to Tangier." "Also aboard the ship will be Yorgi Petrosian, a totally ruthless Red agent." "His orders are to get the details of the plan any way he can." "Your mission, Jim, should you decide to accept it, is to get the emerald and dispose of Petrosian." "As always, should you or any of your IM Force be caught or killed, the secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions." "This tape will self-destruct in ten seconds." "Good luck, Jim." "It's beautiful." "It's an exact duplicate of the one we're after." "The plan is on a tiny piece of plastic that's been laminated to one of the bottom facets of the real stone." "It's my guess if we don't try to buy it, Petrosian will." "I agree, I think that'll be his first move, until you stop him." " Is that the diplomatic pouch?" " Right." "And the proper credentials." "That should force them to come up with a better plan." "Which we will give him." "Deal out a half-dozen cards." "King of hearts." "Ten of clubs." "Four of spades." "Nine of hearts." " The backs are marked?" " No, too risky." "Ace of diamonds." "Queen of clubs." "Now, how could you know every card?" "I can't." "Barney does." "That tabletop over there has built-in sensors that reads the metallic impregnations of the cards." "Now, when the card hits the table, the identity lights up here and I tell Jim what it is through the receiver in his glasses." "Let's see that again." "The only thing it can't do is deal a winning hand." "And when we need that, I get in the game." "It's a little device I always use whenever I wanna win an emerald." "Attention, all passengers, the main salon will remain closed until the ship sails." " Oh, it's just this way, please." " We're going up to the purser's office." "Will you see that my luggage gets to my suite?" "Go up there." "Right on schedule." "I would like this placed in the vault, please." "Certainly, sir." " Will that be all, sir?" " Yes, it will, thank you." " You the purser?" " Yes, sir." "Arrangements have been made to leave this in the vault until we dock." "I've been expecting you." "A master-at-arms was to guard the vault around-the-clock." "Has that been arranged?" " I'll see to it, sir." " I appreciate it." "Attention, please." "Attention, second call." "The Queen of Suez will be sailing in 20 minutes." " It's in the safe." " Good." "If he refuses to sell us the stone, we know just where to find it." "He'd better sell it because we won't be able to get into the safe." "A diplomatic courier put his pouch in there and asked that an armed guard be on duty." "Give him a few minutes to get settled and then make your call." "Offer him as much as you have to." "Yes, this will do very nicely." " Thank you, steward." " Thank you, sir." "What are you doing in my suite?" "I was just going to have a glass of champagne." " Won't you join me?" " Steward." "Steward, there seems to have been a mix-up in the accommodations." "Will you tell the young lady that she's in my sitting room?" "This is Monsieur Tomar's suite, madam." "Well, forgive me, it seems that the mistake is mine." "Not at all." "The mistake is the ship's." "And I'm going to see to it that they make it up to you." "Thank you." " How are you coming with the ponies?" " Almost finished." "How do you do?" "My name is Williams." "I wonder if I might see Mr. Tomar on a matter of great urgency?" "Come in." "Forgive my barging in this way, but I simply had to see you before the ship sailed." " What can I do for you?" " I'm with Hastings and Fitzroy." "The London jewellers." "Some weeks ago, our firm was commissioned by a client to secure for him a particularly fine emerald which was to have been put on sale in Paris." "Unfortunately, it was purchased before we could do so." "And it is our understanding that you have it." "We should like to purchase the stone from you." " At a considerable profit, of course." " The stone is not for sale." "It's part of a matched pair, Mr. Williams." "I have no notion of the value now that I have both of them." "So you see, even if I wanted to sell it, I wouldn't know what price to put on it." "I'm sorry." "Good day." "Let's go." "He won't sell." "The safe is too well-guarded." "We must see to it that Mr. Tomar gets his emerald out of the safe for us." "Come on, two." "Come on, two." "Come on." "Come on." "That's it." "Seven." "Come on, seven." "Come on, seven." "Seven!" "That's a three-horse parlay." "I think that's enough for a while." " I'm a big winner." " Well, that's wonderful." "I think we should celebrate your good fortune." "And I insist because you can't take luck for granted, otherwise, it will desert us." "You know that man?" "No." "I've never seen him before." "Victor Tomar." "He sells guns." "Thirty miles." "Thirty miles of track, and I'm sorry, fellas, but you can't win them all." "As a matter of fact, you can't win any of them." "He's also an inveterate gambler." "That's unusual for a hardheaded businessman, wouldn't you say?" "No." "He's lucky, and he knows it." "I would think that you enjoy gambling a great deal." "I simply cannot stay away from it." "It doesn't matter if I win or lose, it's just that, well, it gives me a thrill, an excitement that nothing else does." "Yes, I've known that excitement too." "I'd like to get him in a game." " To lose?" " No, no." "I wouldn't lose." "See, I..." "I use skill not luck." "Then why don't you play him?" "Well, it's known that I'm a professional with cards, and the shipping line has made it clear that I can't win too much from the passengers." "You know, it took every ounce of self-control that I have to leave that game." "Maybe you shouldn't have." "You seemed to be running in luck." "It seems that way, doesn't it?" "You know, I've got a feeling about this trip." "My luck has changed, I've been winning." "I know I'm gonna keep on winning, I just know it." "To good luck." "I've never met a professional card player before." "Would you show me how you do it?" "I might have an idea that could be profitable for both of us." "Well, not here." "Will you join me in my stateroom?" " Five hundred." " You've got him beat, Jim." "I'll call." "Up 1,000." "Your thousand." "Two thousand more." "Too rich." "Call." " Three little old kings." " Beats three jacks." "Two pair here." "He'll draw one." "No help." "A straight here." "He'll stand." "Two pair here." "Jacks and eights." "He'll draw another jack for a full house." "I have a king of hearts, king of clubs, a two, three, four of hearts." "But I'll need a king-high full to beat this hand." "Watch." "Impossible." "People get very emotional about the sale of arms, especially to a government that they don't happen to approve of." "But I'm successful in my business precisely because I do not get emotional." "I sell to whoever has the money to buy." "You must be very rich." "Well, as I said, I'm successful." "You said earlier you would like to play this man Tomar." "I see now that you could win a great deal of money from him." "As it happens, there is something I want from Tomar too." "Not money, a jewel." "A fine emerald that has been in my family for nearly 200 years." "I have been trying to buy it back." " But Tomar won't sell?" " Precisely." "What do you have in mind?" "That's enough about me." "I think I'm keeping you from capitalizing on your newfound luck." "I wanna thank you for the celebration." "I just meant this for the beginning." "Will you have dinner with me this evening?" " I'd like that very much." " Eight o'clock?" " Meet you here." " Good." "With your skill, if we were both in a game, you could arrange for me to win." "Go on, go on, I'm with you." "When we have won all his cash, you lure him to wager the stone by giving him what appears to be an unbeatable hand." " Which we beat." " I take the gem, the cash is yours." "One pair." "Two pair." "Cinnamon has a straight to the ten." "Tomar's on his way to the lounge." "Jim, take her now." "Tomar's on his way." "And the little old dealer takes one card." "Your bet." "Five hundred." "Well, let's just make it 2,000." "Out." "Pass." "Well, are you in, ma'am?" "This will cover it." "Now, that surely will." "It surely will." "Straight, ten high." "Well, sure is a pity to waste such a fine piece of jewellery on such a bad hand." " No, no, please, please let me go." " No, no." " I've lost everything, please." " No, no, no." "That's not an answer." "But I've lost everything I owned, everything." "Do you know how much that bracelet is worth?" " A couple of thousand dollars." " Twenty thousand dollars." "Are you quite sure you can trust this man?" "Of course not." "That is why you will sit behind him and signal me what he has in his hand." "I should know that the only kind of luck for people like me is bad." "I'll buy it back for you." " I think you're serious." " Of course I'm serious." "The terrible thing is that even if I let you buy it back for me," "I'd probably lose it again before we ever got to Tangier." "There was something about that man's dumb luck which infuriated me." "I wanna wipe that smug smile off his face almost as much as I want that bracelet back." "Suppose that can be arranged?" "How?" "Well, as you said, some people are unlucky." "Some people are lucky." "At poker, I'm always lucky." "If I let you win that bracelet back for me, what do you want from me?" " How many?" " A pair." "I play these." " Forget it." " Two." "Signal Rollin to deal him anything but hearts." "Dealer takes one." "Pass." "Five hundred." "May I?" "New blood." "Sure, sit down, my friend, you sit right down there." " What are the stakes?" " This is no limit, straight poker." "You just put your money down and play." "Now's the time." "Petrosian has a winning hand." "I'll call and raise 3,000." "I call." "I see the five and raise five." "That's one, two thou, three, four thousand dollars in cash." "And that." "Call." "Flush to the ten." "Yeah, that beats a straight." "Beats me." "No good." "Mine is queen high." "Thank you, gentlemen." "Well, don't thank me." "I bid you good night." " A hundred." " Hundred, up a thousand." "It's only money." "One." "Two." "Two." "Dealer takes one." "Your bet." "Five thousand." "Five and three." "I don't know what you two are so proud of, but I'm going to find out." "Call the 8,000." "And up you 5." "Twenty thousand." "Since I am short by $2,000," "I will make up the difference with this." "Excuse me." "No cheques." "We play for cash." "I assure you my cheque is quite as good as cash." "Well, I'm sure it is, but not in this game." "Would you get the emerald?" "Welcome to the club." "Excuse me, please." "Let me get through, please." "Thank you." "Gentlemen, this stone is worth at least $25,000." "Now, there's only one condition that I must insist on:" "If I lose, I be allowed to redeem it as soon as we reach Tangier." "One of my agents will bring the necessary cash aboard." "Very well." "Wait." "I haven't dropped out yet." "I call." "Hold it." "I believe my straight flush is higher." "I'll see you in Tangier." "All he had was a full house, I'm sure." "The only thing I'm sure of, he is a dead man." "Hey, hi there, my friend, let me buy you a little drink." " What's this?" " Harry Willard's the name." "What's your name?" "Stay where you are." " I'll take that emerald." " Sorry, Petrosian." "My country wants it as much as yours does." "Man overboard!" "Man overboard!" "Let's have just one little belt, huh?" "It all happened so quickly." "We were arguing, then he came at me, and I stepped aside and then he just fell overboard." "I called, "Man overboard, man overboard."'" "And it was an accident, you know, I couldn't stop him." "He's coming around." "Where am I?" "You're on a sardine trawler." "We're out of Djerba out of Tunis." "Picked you up about 30 miles off the coast." "Looked like you were trying to swim clear across the Mediterranean." "I was on the S. S. Queen of Suez." "I..." "I..." "I must have had too much to drink." "And so I'll have to ask you to make yourself available for the Board of lnquiry when we reach Tangier, Mr. Miller." "Of course, I understand." "I would like to get a message to my associate." "Could you send it in code?" "So that he will be sure to have $5,000 for you when we meet the Queen of Suez in Tangier?" "That poker game was even unluckier for Petrosian than it was for us." "Shall we have a nightcap in my suite?" "I don't think so." "I don't really need any more losers." "Thank you." "That's it." "Good." "No." " Who is it?" " Radiogram for you, sir." "It better fool Williams or we'll never get off this ship alive." "He'll have 20 men waiting for us in Tangier." "What will they do to Williams when they find out he didn't recover the right emerald?" "Probably the same thing he did to Petrosian."