eiling below the cupboard in
which the telephone was installed, and ran down the tunnel towards the
distillery.

The walls and ceiling of both cellar and passages were supported by
pit-props, discolored by the damp and marked by stains of earthy water
which had oozed from the spaces between. They glistened with moisture,
but the air, though cold and damp, was fresh. That and the noise of the
waves which reverberated along the passage under the wharf seemed to
show that there was an open connection to the river.

The cellar was empty except for a large wooden tun or cask which reached
almost to the ceiling, and a gunmetal hand pump. Pipes led from the
latter, one to the tun, the other along the passage under the wharf. On
the side of the tun and connected to it at top and bottom was a vertical
glass tube protected by a wooden casing, evidently a gauge, as beside it
was a scale headed "gallons," and reading from 0 at the bottom to 2,000
at the top. A dark-colored liquid filled the tube up to the figure
1,250. There was a wooden spigot tap in the side of the tun at floor
level, and the tramline ran beneath this so that the wheeled kegs could
be pushed below it and filled.

The inspector gazed with an expression of almost awe on his face.

"Lord!" he muttered. "Is it brandy after all?"

He stooped and smelled the wooden tap, and the last doubt was removed
from his mind.

He gave vent to a comprehensive oath. Right enough it was hard luck!
Here he had been hoping to bring off a forged note coup which would have
made his name, and the affair was a job for the Customs Department after
all! Of course a pretty substantial reward would be due to him for his
discovery, and there was his murder case all quite satisfactory, but
forged notes were more in his line, and he felt cheated out of his due.

But now that he was so far he might as well learn all he could. The more
complete the case he gave in, the larger the reward. Moreover, his own
curiosity was keenly aroused.

The cellar being empty save for the tun, the pump, and the small tramway
and trucks, he turned, and flashing his light before him, walked slowly
along the passage down which ran the pipe. He was, he felt sure, passing
under the wharf and heading towards the river.

Some sixty feet past the pump the floor of the passage came to an abrupt
end, falling vertically as by an enormous step to churning waters of the
river some six feet below. At first in the semi-