e
had some reason."

"I wasn't doing anything. I was simply looking on."

"That may have been the most objectionable thing possible," I said. "I
don't say that his violence was justified; but it may have been quite
excusable if you insisted on looking on at something which he didn't
want you to see."

Godfrey actually tried to smile. He could not do so, of course, on
account of the condition of his mouth, but I judged by the expression
of his eyes that he was trying to. Godfrey's smiles are always either
malicious or idiotic. This one, if it had come off, would have been
malicious.

"I saw all I wanted to," he said, "before they attacked me. In fact, I
was just going for the police--"

"I suppose you sent for the police this morning?" I said.

"No, I didn't. I don't trust the police. I wouldn't trust the
magistrates here, except you, of course, Excellency. What I'm going to
do is write to the Chancellor of the Exchequer."

"Good gracious, Godfrey! Why the Chancellor of the Exchequer? What
interest can you expect him to take in your fights? If you are going
to make a political matter of it at all, you'd far better try the
Secretary of State for War. It's much more in his line."

"But the Chancellor of the Exchequer is the man who's responsible for
the revenue, isn't he?"

"You can't expect him to give you a pension simply because Power
knocked out your teeth."

"He'll stop Power smuggling," said Godfrey.

"I suppose," I said, "that it's no use my telling you that he was not
smuggling?"

"I saw him at it," said Godfrey, "and I'm going to write to the
Chancellor of the Exchequer."

"What on earth do you expect to gain by that?" I asked.

"He ought to be grateful to me for putting him on the track of the
smuggling," said Godfrey. "I should think he'd want to do something
for me afterwards. He might--"

"Give you a job," I said.

"Yes," said Godfrey. "I always heard that fellows in the Treasury got
good salaries."

I was greatly relieved when I left Godfrey. I expected that he would
want to take some sort of legal proceedings against Bob Power which
would have involved us all in a great deal of unpleasantness. I should
not have been surprised if he had tried to blackmail Bob or Conroy, or
both, and I should have disliked that very much. But his letter to the
Chancellor of the Exchequer seemed to be merely foolish. In the first
place Bob Power was not smuggling. In the next place the Chancellor of
the