“But it must pay or they wouldn’t go on with it. Mr. Coburn said it was paying well enough.”
Hilliard bent forward eagerly.
“Of course he would say so,” he cried. “Don’t you see that his saying so is in itself suspicious? Why should he want to tell you that if there was nothing to make you doubt it?”
“There is nothing to make me doubt it. See here, Hilliard, I don’t for the life of me know what you’re getting at. For the Lord’s sake explain yourself.”
“Ah,” Hilliard returned with a smile, “you see you weren’t brought up in the Customs. Do you know, Merriman, that the thing of all others we’re keenest on is an import trade that doesn’t pay?” He paused a moment, then added slowly: “Because if a trade which doesn’t pay is continued, there must be something else to make it pay. Just think, Merriman. What would make a trade from France to this country pay?”
Merriman gasped.
“By Jove, Hilliard! You mean smuggling?”
Hilliard laughed delightedly.
“Of course I mean smuggling, what else?”
He waited for the idea to sink into his companion’s brain, and then went on: