of the apartment would not
permit.

"I didn't tell you but half the story on deck, sir," said Bobtail. "I
didn't like to speak out before Mr. Hines; but you are the deputy
collector."

"And Mr. Hines is a custom-house officer," added Mr. Simonton.

"O, is he? I didn't know it. Well, sir, I think there's something wrong
about this boat, and I want to tell you the rest of the story."

"What do you mean by something wrong, Bobtail?"

"In the smuggling line."

"Then I think we had better let Mr. Hines hear the story, for it is part
of his duty to look up cases of this kind," replied Squire Simonton, as
he rose from his seat, and bumped his head against a deck-beam.

When they were seated on the cork cushions of the standing-room, the
deputy collector intimated that Little Bobtail had something to say, and
the boy rose to explain.

"When I picked this boat up, her cabin was half full of boxes," said he.

"Cigars?" said Mr. Hines.

"No, sir, I don't know's I had any business to open one of the boxes,
but I did. It was full of bottles," added Bobtail.

"Brandy?" said the inspector.

"The bottles were labelled 'JAMES HENNESSY & CO.--COGNAC.'"

"Just so; that's brandy. How many were there?" asked Mr. Hines.

"Twenty boxes, and each box contained two dozen. The bottles were in
kind of straw casing."

"I know," nodded the inspector. "What have you done with them?"

"I didn't know what to do with them. I meant to be on the safe side; so
I hid them in my father's garret."

"That's a bad place for them," said Squire Simonton, who was an earnest
and consistent temperance man, and had labored diligently to reform
Ezekiel Taylor.

"My father don't know anything at all about the matter."

"We must get them out of his way at once. I don't know but it would
have been just as well if you had emptied all the bottles into the bay,"
laughed the deputy collector.

"I thought of that, but I didn't think the fishes would like it."

"Of course this brandy is smuggled," added Mr. Hines. "Don't Captain
Chinks know anything about it?"

Bobtail related the particulars of his interview with the "gentleman of
doubtful reputation."

"But the captain don't claim the boat?" said Squire Simonton.

"He says she don't belong to him, and he knows nothing about the cargo."

The two custom-house officials discussed the case at considerable
length. As no one but Bobtail and his mother knew anything about the
boxes, it was thought