Merriman nodded.
“If it costs the same amount to cut the props at each place,” Hilliard resumed, “and the Norwegian freight is lower, the Norwegian props must be cheaper in England. How then do your friends make it pay?”
“Methods more up to date perhaps. Things looked efficient, and that manager seemed pretty wide-awake.”
Hilliard shook his head.
“Perhaps, but I doubt it. I don't think you have much to teach the Norwegians about the export of timber. Mind you, it may be all right, but it seems to me a question if the Bordeaux people have a paying trade.”
Merriman was puzzled.
“But it must pay or they wouldn't go on with it. Mr. Coburn said it was paying well enough.”
Hilliard bent forward eagerly.
“Of course he would say so,” he cried. “Don't you see that his saying so is in itself suspicious? Why should he want to tell you that if there was nothing to make you doubt it?”
“There is nothing to make me doubt it. See here, Hilliard, I don't for the life of me know what you're getting at. For the Lord's sake explain yourself.”
“Ah,” Hilliard returned with a smile, “you see you weren't brought up in the Customs. Do you know, Merriman, that the thing of all others we're keenest on is an import trade that doesn't pay?” He paused a moment, then added slowly: “Because if a trade which doesn't pay is continued, there must be something else to make it pay. Just think, Merriman. What would make a trade from France to this country pay?”
Merriman gasped.
“By Jove, Hilliard! You mean smuggling?”
Hilliard laughed delightedly.
“Of course I mean smuggling, what else?”
He waited for the idea to sink into his companion's brain, and then went on:
“And now another thing. Bordeaux, as no one knows better than yourself, is just the center of the brandy district. You see what I'm getting at. My department would naturally be interested in a mysterious trade from the Bordeaux district. You accidentally find one. See? Now what do you think of it?”
“I don't think much of it,” Merriman answered sharply, while a wave of unreasoning anger passed over him. The SUGGESTION annoyed him unaccountably. The vision of Madeleine Coburn's clear, honest eyes returned forcibly to his recollection. “I'm afraid you're out of it this time. If you had seen Miss Coburn you would have known she is not the sort of girl to lend herself to anything of that kind.”
Hilliard eyed his friend narrowly and with some surprise, but he only said:
“You think not? Well, perhaps you are right. You've seen her and I haven't. But those two points are at least INTERESTING—the changing of the numbers and the absence of a return trade.”
“I don't believe there's anything in it.”
“Probably you're right, but the idea interests me. I was going to make a proposal, but I expect now you won't agree to it.”
Merriman's momentary annoyance was subsiding.
“Let's hear it anyway, old man,” he said in conciliatory tones.
“You get your holidays shortly, don't you?”
“Monday week. My partner is away now, but he'll be back on Wednesday. I go next.”
“I thought so. I'm going on mine next week—taking the motor launch, you know. I had made plans for the Riviera—to go by the Seine, and from there by canal to the Rhone and out at Marseilles. Higginson was coming with me, but as you know he's crocked up and won't be out of bed for a month. My proposal is that you come in his place, and that instead of crossing France in the orthodox way by the Seine, we try to work through from Bordeaux by the Garonne. I don't know if we can do it, but it would be rather fun trying. But anyway the point would be that we should pay a call at your sawmill on the way, and see if we can learn anything more about the lorry numbers. What do you say?”
“Sounds jolly fascinating.” Merriman had quite recovered his good humor. “But I'm not a yachtsman. I know nothing about the business.”
“Pooh! What do you want to know? We're not sailing, and motoring through these rivers and canals is great sport. And then we can go on to Monte and any of those places you like. I've done it before and had no end of a good time. What do you say? Are you on?”
“It's jolly decent of you, I'm sure, Hilliard. If you think you can put up with a hopeless landlubber, I'm certainly on.”
Merriman was surprised to find how much he was thrilled by the proposal. He enjoyed boating, though only very mildly, and it was certainly not the prospect of endless journeyings along the canals and rivers of France that attracted him. Still less was it the sea, of which he hated the motion. Nor was it the question of the lorry numbers. He was puzzled and interested in the affair, and he would like to know the solution, but his curiosity was not desperately keen, and he did not feel like taking a great deal of trouble to satisfy it. At all events he was not going to do any spying, if that was what Hilliard wanted, for he did not for a moment accept that smuggling theory. But when they were in the neighborhood he supposed it would be permissible to call and see the Coburns. Miss Coburn had seemed lonely. It would be decent to try to cheer her up. They might invite her on board, and have tea and perhaps a run up the river. He seemed to visualize the launch moving easily between the tree-clad banks, Hilliard attending to the engine and steering, he and the brown-eyed girl in the taffrail, or the cockpit, or the well, or whatever you sat in on a motor boat. He pictured a gloriously sunny afternoon, warm and delightful, with just enough air made by the movement to prevent it being too hot. It would …
Hilliard's voice broke in on his thoughts, and he realized his friend had been speaking for some time.
“She's over-engined, if anything,” he was saying, “but that's all to the good for emergencies. I got fifteen knots out of her once, but she averages about twelve. And good in a sea-way, too. For her size, as dry a boat as ever I was in.”
“What size is she?” asked Merriman.
“Thirty feet, eight feet beam, draws two feet ten. She'll go down any of the French canals. Two four-cylinder engines, either of which will run her. Engines and wheel amidships, cabin aft, decked over. Oh, she's a beauty. You'll like her, I can tell you.”
“But do you mean to tell me you would cross the Bay of Biscay in a boat that size?”
“The Bay's maligned. I've been across it six times and it was only rough once. Of course, I'd keep near the coast and run for shelter if it came on to blow. You need not worry. She's as safe as a house.”
“I'm not worrying about her going to the bottom,” Merriman answered. “It's much worse than that. The fact is,” he went on in a burst of confidence, “I can't stand the motion. I'm ill all the time. Couldn't I join you later?”
Hilliard nodded.
“I had that in my mind, but I didn't like to suggest it. As a matter of fact it would suit me better. You see, I go on my holidays a week earlier than you. I don't want to hang about all that time waiting for you. I'll get a man and take the boat over to Bordeaux, send the man home, and you can come overland and join me there. How would that suit you?”
“A1, Hilliard. Nothing could be better.”
They continued discussing details for the best part of an hour, and when Merriman left for home it had been arranged that he should follow Hilliard by the night train from Charing Cross on the following Monday week.
CHAPTER 3
THE START OF THE CRUISE