said when he entered. Duncan assumed the inquisitorial air his chief had in a marked degree. “Thought you were searching tourists on the Olympic this afternoon,” he replied. Gibbs mopped his perspiring head, “I was,” he answered. “I had two thousand crazy women, all of ’em swearing they hadn’t brought in a thing. Gosh! Women is liars.” “What are you doing over here?” Duncan asked. “I brought along a dame they want your boss Taylor to look over. It needs a smart guy like him to land her. Where is he?” “Down with Malone now; he’ll be back soon.” Gibbs sank into a chair with a sigh of relief. “He don’t have to hurry on my account. I’ll be tickled to stay here all day. I’m sick of searching trunks that’s got nothing in ’em but clothes. It ain’t like the good old days, Jim. In them times if you treated a tourist right he’d hand you his business card, and when you showed up in his office next day, he’d come across without a squeal. I used to know the down-town business section pretty well in them days.” “So did I. Why, when I was inspector, if you had any luck picking out your passenger you’d find twenty dollars lying right on the top tray of the first trunk he opened up for you.” Gibbs sighed again. It seemed the golden age was passing. “And believe me,” he said, “when that happened to me I never opened any more of his trunks, I just labeled the whole bunch. But now—why, since this new administration got in I’m so honest it’s pitiful.” Duncan nodded acquiescence. “It’s a hell of a thing when a government official has to live on his salary,” he said regretfully. “They didn’t ought to expect it of us.” “What do they care?” Gibbs asserted bitterly, and then added with that inquiring air which had frequently been mistaken for intelligence: “Ain’t it funny that it’s always women who smuggle? They’ll look you right in the eye and lie like the very devil, and if you do land ’em they ain’t ashamed, only sore!” Duncan assumed his most superior air. “I guess men are honester than women, Jim, and that’s the whole
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