ecognised Lord
Ramelton at once and greeted him with cheery playfulness.

"Hallo!" he said, "Held up! I never expected you to be caught smuggling
arms about the country."

"I wish you'd tell this boy to let me drive on," said Lord Ramelton.
"I'm getting wet through."

The General turned to Willie Thornton.

"What's the matter?" he said.

Willie was pleasantly conscious that he had done nothing except obey his
orders. He saluted smartly.

"There's a packing-case in the car, sir," he said, "and it ought to be
examined."

The General looked into Lord Ramelton's car and saw the packing-case. He
could scarcely deny that it might very easily contain cartridges, that
it was indeed exactly the sort of case which should be opened. He turned
to Lord Ramelton.

"It's marked sugar," he said. "What's in it really?"

Lord Ramelton took the General by the arm and led him a little way up
the street. When they were out of earshot of the crowd round the car he
spoke in a low voice.

"It _is_ sugar," he said. "I give you my word that there's nothing it
that case except sugar."

"Good Lord!" said the General. "Of course, when you say so it's all
right, Ramelton. But would you mind telling me why you want to go
driving about the country with two or three hundredweight of sugar in
your ear?"

"It's not my sugar at all," said Lord Ramelton. "It's my wife's. You
know the way we're rationed for sugar now--half a pound a head and
the servants eat all of it. Well, her ladyship is bent on making some
marmalade and rhubarb jam. I don't know how she did it, but she got some
sugar from a man at Ballymurry. Wangled it. Isn't that the word?"

"Seems exactly the word," said the General.

"And I'm bringing it home to her. That's all."

"I see," said the General. "But why not have let the officer see what
was in the case? Sugar is no business of his, and you'd have saved a lot
of time and trouble."

"Because a village like this is simply full of spies."

"Spies!" said the General. "If I thought there were spies here I'd----"

"Oh, not the kind of spies you mean. The Dunedin people are far too
sensible for that sort of thing. But if one of the shopkeepers here
found out that a fellow in Ballymurry had been doing an illicit sugar
deal he'd send a letter off to the Food Controller straightaway. A
man up in Dublin was fined L100 the other day for much less than we're
doing. I don't want my name in every newspaper in the kingdom for
ob