spirit, but merely refine what other firms have produced, are not
so strictly looked after? Rectifiers would surely find smuggled
stuff easier to dispose of than distillers."

Hilliard shook his head.

"Perhaps so, theoretically," he admitted, "but in practice there's
nothing in it. Neither could work a fraud like that, for both are
watched far too closely by our people. I'm afraid I don't see that
this place being here helps us. Surely it's reasonable to suppose
that the same cause brought Messrs. Ackroyd & Bolt that attracted
the syndicate? Just that it's a good site. Where in the district
could you get a better? Cheap ground and plenty of it, and steamer
and rail connections."

"It's a coincidence anyway."

"I don't see it. In any case unless we can prove that the ship
brings brandy the question doesn't arise."

Merriman shrugged his shoulders good-humoredly.

"That's a blow," he remarked. "And I was so sure I had got hold of
something good! But it just leads us back to the question that
somehow or other we must inspect that depot, and if we find nothing
we must watch the Girondin unloading. If we can only get near
enough it would be impossible for them to discharge anything in bulk
without our seeing it.

Hilliard murmured an agreement, and the two men strolled on in