The Mystery Megapack

appear, and am searched, you substitute this Number 1 bag for Number 2 which I shall bring in; and you search this Number 1 as fiercely as you like before the boss. Then, when I am let out, you hand me Number 2, and I go. As for Number 1 I’ll make you a present of it, as a little souvenir. Now, say ‘yes,’ and I’ll hand you the fivers now.”
    Wentock said “yes” promptly for the two of them, and I pulled out my pocketbook, and handed each a five-pound note.
    “No,” said Wentock quickly. “Gold, if you please, Cap’n. Them things is too easy traced.”
    I laughed, and passed him across ten sovereigns, and took back my notes.
    “You’re a smart man, Wentock,” I said.
    “Have to be, sir, in our business,” he replied, grinning in his cheerfully unscrupulous fashion.
    * * * *
    August 19. A.M.
    I sail tomorrow; so if I don’t manage to get the stuff through today, I shall be in a hole; for I promised it faithfully for not later than the twentieth.
    * * * *
    Later. P.M.
    When I took my bag down to the gates today to go out, it can be easily imagined that I felt a bit of tension. Six thousand pounds is a lot of risk, apart from the possibility of serious trouble if one is nailed.
    However, it had to be done; so I went up to the gates, trying to look as cheerful as usual, and made my accustomed protest against searching, to the genial and diplomatic officer who met me, and invited me to my expected séance in the cubicle.
    As I was entering the doorway of the outer office, a messenger boy came up to me, and touched his cap.
    “Are you Cap’n Gault, sir?” he asked me.
    “I am,” I said.
    “I just been down to the ship, sir,” he explained. “They said you was just off through the gates, and I might catch you if I hurried. I’m to deliver this letter to you, sir, and to tell you there ain’t no answer. Good morning, sir.”
    “Good morning,” I said, and tipped him a quarter. Then, as I entered the office with my polite official, I opened the letter.
    What I found therein could hardly be supposed to decrease my feelings of tension. The note was printed, crudely, so as to disguise the handwriting. It ran exactly thus:
    *
    Captain Gault,
    S.S. Calypso
    Sir,
    Be advised, and do not attempt to smuggle your stuff through the Customs. You will be sold if you do, and someone who cannot help a friendly feeling for you would regret not to have given you this chance to draw back. Pay the duty, even if you lose money. The Authorities know far more than you can think. They know absolutely that you bought the “material” you wish to smuggle through, and they know the price you paid, which was £5997. That is a lot of money to risk losing, apart from fines and imprisonment. So be warned and pay the duty in the ordinary way. I can do no more for you than this.
    A WELLWISHER
    *
    Now, that was what might really be called a nerve-racker to read, and just after I had entered the very place that the warning begged me to avoid, at least in what I might call a “smuggling capacity.” I could not possibly back out now; for suspicion would be inevitable; also my plans were all arranged.
    I went straight on into the place, looking more comfortable than I felt. I took a quick look round the inner office, and saw the end of a bag, half hidden, under a table. That, at any rate, looked as if Ewiss and Wentock meant to be faithful and carry out the substitution, as arranged. If they had given me away, it might be supposed that the bag I had given them would be now in the hands of their superior officers.
    I looked at the problem every way. And all the time, as I puzzled, I kept asking myself not only who wrote that warning; but who, of all the people I knew, had the necessary knowledge of detail that it showed.
    Ewiss and Wentock rose from their desks as I entered the private room, and Wentock came forward and took my bag from me, while Ewiss beckoned me towards the cubicle.
    The search they made of me was not drastic; but even had it been I should not have minded, in the circumstances. What I was thinking about, all the time, was the bags, and whether the two searchers meant to be faithful to their part of our bargain.
    One thing, at first, I placed as an argument in their favor. It was that the unemotional courtesy of the head official was quite unimpaired; and I could not imagine that even he would be able to remain so absolutely and almost statuesquely calm if my two presumed confederates had given me away to