“We will continue the work,” Desmond said, “and see how extensively this fraud has been carried on.”

The same result was met with in each of the openings.  The first three lines consisted of barrels filled with cartridges; the seven lines behind contained nothing but earth.

“You see, Colonel, instead of having over three thousand two hundred barrels of cartridges, you have less than a thousand.  It is almost beyond belief!  It is clear that this fellow, and probably the man who was in charge before him, have been in collusion with the contractors for these cartridges, and allowed them to send in seven barrels of earth for every three of cartridges.  No doubt, they calculated that there was little chance of the fraud being detected—­never, indeed, until there was a prolonged siege—­for they would naturally serve out the barrels from the front row, as they were required, filling their places with fresh ones as supplies came in.”

The other storehouses were now examined.  The number of cannonball alone tallied with the account.  There were large deficiencies in the store of powder, and, indeed, among almost all the other munitions.

“It is infinitely worse than I thought,” the colonel said, “and I fear that the storekeepers are not the only people concerned in these frauds.”

“Now, Colonel, if you do not mind, I should like to go to one of the provision stores at once.  Possibly, after what we have discovered, some pretext to stop further examination may be invented, if we wait till tomorrow.”

Great as had been the fraud in the magazines, that in the supplies of provisions was even greater.  There was a deficiency of many hundreds of sacks of flour and beans.  The meat stores were entirely empty, although they should have contained a large number of tierces of salted beef.  This was a matter of minor importance, for in case of the approach of an enemy, the people of the country round would drive their cattle into the town, and, indeed, the allowance of meat to a Spanish soldier was so small that he could do well without it, existing entirely upon bread and fried beans.  Of wine there was scarce half the amount indicated.  A great number of the barrels had been filled only with water.

It was late in the afternoon when the work ceased.

“I should require a fortnight,” Desmond said, “to get accurate figures.  This, however, is comparatively unimportant.  It is quite sufficient to know that in no case is there half the amount, either of ammunition or of provisions, given in the governor’s last report, and that fraud on a large scale has been carried on; and I cannot but think that some men, at least, of higher rank than these storekeepers must have been privy to the affair.”

“There has certainly been something wrong in the supply of clothes, Major Kennedy.  My men have had no new ones served out to them for the past year and a half, although I have made repeated applications during the past two months.”