“Eh? Already.... Why, we hain’t hardly got the last off’n our hands. It’s takin’ a chance, says I, and crowdin’ the mourners.” “I’m running this business, Jenney.... This next is to be no retail deal, either. It’s wholesale.” “You--you want to go easy. By golly! Mr. Fownes, so much stuff comin’ in is goin’ to git somebody mighty curious.” “If you’re sheriff, Jenney, what will the curiosity amount to?” “Federal officers!” Fownes shrugged his shoulders. “I’ll see to your appointment as sheriff. You attend to organizing everybody to receive the shipment. We’ll need all available space and all outlets. I’m going to fetch in enough this time to flood the county.” “You know what you’re doin’,” Jenney said, sullenly, “but what with that damn paper a-peckin’ at us all the time----” “Nobody reads it, Jenney. And you’ll be sheriff.” “I’ll do my dumdest--but I don’t like it.” “And I don’t care whether you like it or not. And that’s that. Better see Peewee first.” “When’s it comin’?” “Inside of ten days.... And, Jenney, I don’t believe the paper’s going to bother much longer.” “Eh?” “I’m going to--er--give that girl a hint of our plans.” “_What?_” “I’m going to give her a tip, as they say. She’ll investigate, and that professor will investigate.” “Like Sheriff Churchill did?” “The result,” said Fownes, “will be similar.” CHAPTER XVI “You are not,” said Evan Pell to Carmel Lee, “familiar with laboratory practice--er--with chemical analysis, for instance.” “I know nothing about it?” “I judged not,” he said, unwittingly reverting to his patronizing manner. “However, it seems to me the individual who searches for truth--in the happenings of the day--would be better fortified for his labors if he applied the methods of the chemist.” “As, for instance?” “Let us suppose there has been a crime. The crime is a result. An inevitable result of the combination of certain elements. Given the crime, the chemist should be able to analyze it and to separate its elements.” “I believe that is the method of story-book detectives.” “No.... No.... This is science, logic. A simple example. You hold a substance in your hand. You moisten it with iodine. If the substance turns purple you know starch is present. Do you see?” “I’m sure I don’t see.” “What do you think of Abner Fownes?” he asked, with uncharacteristic swerving from the subject. “I think he is abominable.” “Possibly.... But impersonally, as an individual--what then?” “He is a pompous, self-deceiving, hypocritical poseur.” “Uh!... As to intelligence?” “As your chemist would say--a trace.” “I fear,” he said, “you have neglected to moisten him with iodine.” “What do you mean?” “I mean,” he said, “that you have utterly failed to comprehend what you are facing--what it is you have to do in this headstrong crusade of yours against the liquor smugglers.” “What has that to do with Abner Fownes?” “That,” he said, “is the big question.”