e window with
her back towards him.

"Anything very particular?" the officer went on, with a touch of
annoyance.

"I guess I'd like to speak to you alone."

The lady evidently heard him, for without speaking she hurriedly drew
her veil down over her face, and noiselessly left the room by a door
which he had not noticed before. The boy caught a glimpse of her face as
she turned, and gave a little start, he hardly knew why. It was a
strange face.

"Now, then, we are quite alone, what have you to say? It's growing
late."

"I wanted to speak to you, sir, about something I saw last night out in
Puget Sound. I thought you ought to be told about it."

"Yes?"

"A boat, sir, that I think is smuggling opium in from the British
Columbia coast."

"What is your name?"

"Thomas Walton. I'm a fisherman."

"What makes you think the boat is smuggling opium?"

"Because she passed down the channel about two o'clock last night and
carried no light."

"What sort of a craft?" asked the customs officer, with a peculiar look.

"I should think she was a sailing sloop, sir-- I couldn't see noways
plain."

"When did you say?"

"Last night."

"Tell me all about it. Where do you live?"

"At my father's ranch on Padilla Bay; he's dead, and I live with my
mother and sister there. I fish during the salmon season."

"Were you alone last night?"

"No; an Indian boy and myself have a boat between us; it was Jo saw her
first."

"Well?"

[Illustration: "A MINUTE AFTER IT WAS LIGHT FOR AN INSTANT AND WE GOT
SIGHT OF HER."]

"We were tacking across the channel, and it was very dark. We had just
come about, and suddenly I heard a swish in the water and felt something
a yard or so off sweeping by. I couldn't see what it was at first. It
seemed to pass in the air. Jo heard it too, and we were both pretty
scared. A minute after it was light for an instant and we got sight of
her, a few yards to windward of us, bending under her sail. Jo pointed
her out to me, and the next moment she seemed to disappear. We got into
port this afternoon very late with our fish, and as soon as I could I
came to tell you."

"How many times have you seen this--this ship without a light?"

"Just the once. We don't carry a light ourselves, or we mightn't have
seen her this time."

"Where was this?"

"To the south of Fidalgo Island."

"In the outer channel?"

"No, right below the slough, to the inner side of the island and the
main shore."

"