field. At first
sight that of brandy smuggling seemed tenable enough, and he turned his
attention to the steps by which the two young men had tried to test it.
At the loading end their observations were admittedly worthless, but at
Ferriby they seemed to have made a satisfactory investigation. Unless
they had unknowingly fallen asleep in the barrel, it was hard to see how
they could have failed to observe contraband being set ashore, had any
been unloaded. But he did not believe they had fallen asleep. People
were usually conscious of awakening. Besides there was the testimony of
Menzies, the pilot. It was hardly conceivable that this man also should
have been deceived. At the same time Willis decided he must interview
him, so as to form his own opinion of the man's reliability.

Another possibility occurred to him which none of the amateur
investigators appeared to have thought of. North Sea trawlers were
frequently used for getting contraband ashore. Was the Girondin
transferring illicit cargo to such vessels while at sea?

This was a question Inspector Willis felt he could not solve. It would
be a matter for the Customs Department. But he knew enough about it to
understand that immense difficulties would have to be overcome before
such a scheme could be worked. Firstly, there was the size of the fraud.
Six months ago, according to what Miss Coburn overheard, the syndicate
were making 6,800 pounds per trip, and probably, from the remarks then
made, they were doing more today. And 6,800 meant--the inspector buried
himself in calculations--at least one thousand gallons of brandy. Was
it conceivable that trawlers could get rid of one thousand gallons every
ten days--One hundred gallons a day? Frankly he thought it impossible.
In fact, in the face of the Customs officers' activities, he doubted
if such a thing could be done by any kind of machinery that could be
devised. Indeed, the more Willis pondered the smuggling theory, the less
likely it seemed to him, and he turned to consider the possibilities of
Miss Coburn's SUGGESTION of false note printing.

Here at once he was met by a fact which he had not mentioned to
Merriman. As it happened, the circulation of spurious Treasury notes was
one of the subjects of interest to Scotland Yard at the moment. Notes
were being forged and circulated in large numbers. Furthermore, the
source of supply was believed to be some of the large towns in the
Midlands, Leeds being particula