"What else have you discovered?" demanded the Collector, curiously.

"Several hundred yards of fine point lace."

"Where is it?"

"In a false bottom under Miss Daisy Linden's trunk. See--there she
stands--that handsome big actress there. Do you think she's as fat as she
looks? Well, just notice how big around her body is, and how thin her arms
and neck are. If you'll get one of the lady inspectors to examine her
privately, you'll find she's got several valuable oil paintings wrapped
around her body, under her clothes."

The woman made a great fuss when they insisted upon rummaging in her trunk
a second time and reluctantly opened it again.

Harry threw everything out and the woman shrieked, scolded and protested.
But when the boy opened the false bottom of the trunk and withdrew the lace
he mentioned, she fainted.

When the actress came to, she found that a lady inspector had disrobed her
in a stateroom on the steamer and taken five very costly paintings away,
which she was smuggling under her clothes.

By the time the Bradys finished, they had nine smugglers exposed, and fully
quarter of a million dollars' worth of valuables were seized.

The Collector had been watching these proceedings with deep interest.

When his own men reached him, he said to them:

"I'm ashamed of you. Here you let two absolutely green men step in and do
the work you've been at for years, much better than you do it yourselves."

"Well," grimly admitted Gibson, "they've kept their boast and beaten us
badly, I'm sorry to say. I don't need to wish them luck for they've got
either a large amount of it, or else they had some inside information."

"Your latter surmise is the correct one," said Harry. "We sent a man down
the bay to meet the steamer. People who are going to smuggle anything
rarely take pains to conceal their contraband goods till they are nearing
port. We know something about the matter, you see. Moreover, we know
would-be smugglers who don't make a profession of it are very careless,
talkative about what they are going to smuggle, and apt to give themselves
away. By sending a good, smart spotter ahead we learned all about the
people we've exposed."

"That game may work very nicely with amateurs. But it would not go with a
professional smuggler by any means."

"I quite agree with you," assented Harry.

"Well," said the Collector, "I'm quite satisfied with your performance, Mr.
Brady, and am convinced that you are the