Herndon now had donned the regulation straw hat of the appraiser, and accompanied by us, posing as visitors, was sauntering about.  At last we came within earshot of the spot where the inspector was going through the effects of 140.

Out of the corner of my eyes I could see that a dispute was in progress over some trifling matter.  The man was cool and calm.  “Call the appraiser,” he said at last, with the air of a man standing on his rights.  “I object to this frisking of passengers.  Uncle Sam is little better than a pickpocket.  Besides, I can’t wait here all day.  My partner is waiting for me uptown.”

Herndon immediately took notice.  But it was quite evidently, after all, only an altercation for the benefit of those who were watching.  I am sure he knew he was being watched, but as the dispute proceeded he assumed the look of a man keenly amused.  The matter, involving only a few dollars, was finally adjusted by his yielding gracefully and with an air of resignation.  Still Herndon did not go and I am sure it annoyed him.

Suddenly he turned and faced Herndon.  I could not help thinking, in spite of all that he must be so expert, that, if he really were a smuggler, he had all the poise and skill at evasion that would entitle him to be called a cast master of the art.

“You see that woman over there?” he whispered.  “She says she is just coming home after studying music in Paris.”

We looked.  It was the guileless ingenue, Mademoiselle Gabrielle.

“She has dutiable goods, all right.  I saw her declaration.  She is trying to bring in as personal effects of a foreign resident gowns which, I believe, she intends to wear on the stage.  She’s an actress.”

There was nothing for Herndon to do but to act on the tip.  The man had got rid of us temporarily, but we knew the inspector would be, if anything, more vigilant.  I think he took even longer than usual.

Mademoiselle Gabrielle and her maid pouted and fussed over the renewed examination which Herndon ordered.  According to the inspector everything was new and expensive; according to her, old, shabby, and cheap.  She denied everything, raged and threatened.  But when, instead of ordering the stamp “Passed” to be placed on her half dozen trunks and bags which contained in reality only a few dutiable articles, Herndon threatened to order them to the appraiser’s stores and herself to go to the Law Division if she did not admit the points in dispute, there was a real scene.

“Generally, madame,” he remonstrated, though I could see he was baffled at finding nothing of the goods he had really expected to find, “generally even for a first offence the goods are confiscated and the court or district attorney is content to let the person off with a fine.  If this happens again we’ll be more severe.  So you had better pay the duty on these few little matters, without that.”

If he had been expecting to “throw a scare” into her, it did not succeed.  “Well, I suppose if I must, I must,” she said, and the only result of the diversion was that she paid a few dollars more than had been expected and went off in a high state of mind.