"There you have it," said McMunn. "According to all the laws of nature
there ought to have been trouble. With a cargo like ours there ought to
have been a lot of trouble. Instead of that the papers are handed over
to us without a question."

"It's peculiar," said Ginty. "It's very peculiar, and that's a fact."

"Then there's the matter of those extra cases," said McMunn. "How many
cases is there in the hold, Ginty?"

"A hundred, seventy-two."

"And the contract was for one-fifty. What's in the odd twenty-two? Tell
me that."

"Pianos," said Lord Dunseverick. "Look at your clearance papers. 'Nature
of Cargo--Pianos.'"

"You'd have your joke," said McMunn, "if the flames of hell were
scorching the soles of your boots."

"It's peculiar," said Ginty.

"It's more than peculiar," said McMunn. "I've been in business for
thirty years, and it's the first time I ever had goods given me that I
didn't ask for."

"Well," said Lord Dunseverick, "if we've got an extra five hundred
rifles we can't complain. There's plenty of men in Ulster ready to use
them."

"Maybe you'll tell me," said McMunn, "why they wouldn't let me pay for
the goods in the office this afternoon. Did anyone ever hear the like of
that--a man refusing money that was due to him, and it offered?"

"It's out of the course of nature," said Ginty.

"They told you," said Lord Dunseverick, "that you could pay Von
Edelstein, and he'd give you a receipt."

"Ay, Von Edelstein. And where's Von Edelstein?"

"He's coming on board this evening," said Lord Dunseverick. "But you
needn't wait for him unless you like. We've got steam up. Why not slip
away?"

"Because it's no my way of doing business," said McMunn, "to slip
away, as you call it, without paying for what I've got I'm a man of
principle."

"Talking of your principles," said Lord Dunseverick, "what did you bring
on board in that basket this afternoon? It looked to me like beer."

"It was beer."

"I'm glad to hear it," said Lord Dunseverick. "Let's have a couple of
bottles."

Ginty took his pipe from his mouth and grinned pleasantly. He wanted
beer.

"You'll be thinking maybe," said McMunn, "that I'm going back on my
temperance principles?"

"We don't think anything of the sort," said Lord Dunseverick. "We think
that foreign travel has widened your principles out a bit That's what we
think, isn't it, Ginty?"

"My principles are what they always were," said McMunn, "but I've some
small shar