“What, you don’t mean that!  I always thought it was concocted out here.”

“’Tis little ye know!  It is mostly sent in from Hamburg, and in all manner of clever ways; the smugglers are as cute as foxes and up to every mortal dodge.  A lot of the contraband is done by native crews, of course without the knowledge of the ships’ officers.  Hydrochloride of cocaine travels in strong paper envelopes between fragile goods, or in larger quantities in false bottoms of boxes, under plates in the engine room, or in the bulkheads.”

“But how can they possibly land the stuff?” inquired Shafto.

“Easier than you think!  There are lots of nice, lonely, sequestered coves, where goods can be put ashore of a dark night, or dropped carefully overboard, hermetically sealed, with an empty tin canister as a float, and picked up at daybreak by a friendly sampan.  Of course, the customs house officers have to be reckoned with from the moment a ship enters till she leaves the port, but sometimes in this drowsy climate a man falls asleep in his long chair, and here is the serang’s chance—­the serang being the head and leader of the crew.  The contraband is quickly lowered in gunny bags to the sampans and carried off in triumph to its destination.  However, not long ago, the customs made a haul of twelve hundred ounces; out here cocaine sells for six pounds an ounce.  So that was a nice little loss, and yet only a drop in the ocean—­for every grain that is seized a pound enters the market.  Oh, I’d make my fortune if I could run one of these foxes to earth.”

“I wish you could,” said Shafto; “have you no clue, no suspicions?”

“Hundreds of suspicions, but no clue.  There’s a fellow in a sampan who unnecessarily hoists a white umbrella—­I have my best eye on him; and there is said to be a broken-down, past-mending motor-launch in a creek beyond Kemmendine, which I propose, when I have a chance, to overhaul on the quiet.  Chinese steamers plying between Japan and Rangoon run stacks of contraband; as soon as one method of landing is discovered they find another; their ingenuity is really interesting to watch.  The chief smugglers are never caught—­only their satellites, who get about four months’ gaol and never blow the gaff.  If they did I wouldn’t give much for their lives.”

“Do you mean to tell me that their employers wouldn’t stick at murder?” cried Shafto aghast.

“They stick at nothing; a murder done second-hand is quite cheap and easy—­just a stab with a dah, or long knife, and the body flung into the Irrawaddy; you know the pace of that racing current and how it tells no tales!  Well, here we are!  You see, for once I can discourse of other things than horses; and, talking of horses, these fellows had better have a bran-mash apiece; but once you get me on cocaine smuggling, I warn you I can jaw till my mouth’s as dry as a lime-kiln.”

CHAPTER XX