"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?"