d to one of the crew. "Joe, throw on that hatch, lock
it, and keep it locked until we get to Bellevue," he snapped. "We're
ready to comply with government regulations, at the proper time and
place. You and your friends can root around all you want after we get to
Bellevue. The next time I find you in the hold with a lighted candle
I'll take it away from you and lock you in there." He turned, ordered
the crowd to disperse and went back to the texas.

It was an old story, this struggle to get liquor past the posts to the
upper Missouri, and there were tricks as yet untried. From the
unexpected passage of this up-bound inspector, going out to his station
at the agency, and his officious nosings, it was believed by many that
any liquor on board would not have a chance to get through. And why
should the _Belle_ be carrying it, since her destination and turning
point was Bellevue?

"Is it true that liquor is smuggled up the river?" asked Patience as the
inspector became lost to sight below.

Her companions laughed in unison.

"They not only try to get it up," answered Tom, "but they succeed. I've
been watching that sour-faced parson on his restless ramblings about the
boat, and I knew at once that there must be a game on. Sometimes their
information is correct. However, I'll back the officers of this packet
against him, any time."

"I'm afraid you'd win your bet, Mr. Boyd," choked the uncle.

"Uncle Joe! What do you know about it?" asked his niece accusingly.

"Nothing, my dear; not a single thing!" he expostulated, raising his
hands in mock horror, his eyes resting on three new yawls turned
bottomside up on the deck near the bow. He mentally pictured the
half-dozen bullboats stowed on the main deck near the stern, each
capable of carrying two tons if handled right, and he shook with
laughter. This year the fur company's boat carried no liquor and its
captain would insist on a most thorough inspection at Bellevue; but the
fur posts on the upper river would be overjoyed by what she would bring
to them. After the inspection she would proceed on her calm way, and tie
against the bank at a proper distance above the agency; just as the
_Belle_ would spend a night against the bank at a proper distance below
Bellevue; and what the latter would run ashore after midnight, when the
inquisitive minister was deep in sleep, would be smuggled upstream in
the smaller boats during the dark of the night following, and be put
aboard th