It really was not difficult to avoid the bully, however, for there was slight chance of their meeting except in the Custom-house. The Smith boy lived up-town and ducked into the subway the minute the clock struck five. Willie, on the other hand, came to work early and left late. He had found a boarding-house very near at hand. It was close to the Armenian quarter, and was not five minutes’ walk from the Custom-house. It was not at all the sort of home he would want to live in permanently, but it would answer very well for the present. An Irish tugboat man and his wife named McMichael had a room to rent, and Willie engaged it. The Irishman and his wife were rough, but very kind-hearted, and they were honest. The woman had lost her only son, and she took a great liking to Willie. So he fortunately had a place that was clean and convenient, and he received the best of treatment. It puzzled Willie, too, to know how he was going to install his wireless. The house in which he lived was close to the elevated railway. Willie knew that the powerful electric currents in the third rail would affect his communication badly. Furthermore, high buildings arose on every hand. So far as wireless communication was concerned, Willie was like a man down in a well. He was walled in on all sides. Besides, there was no really good place to string up an aerial. So Willie postponed the installation of his wireless system. The question was settled for him, however, in a way that was unexpected to Willie. Although Uncle Sam had agents created expressly to prevent infractions of the prohibition laws, the Special Agent of the Treasury was also charged with the duty of preventing the unlawful entry of liquor into the country. There had always been more or less liquor smuggling going on, but since the prohibition amendment became effective, the smuggling of liquor had assumed the proportions of a great industry. Liquor manufacturers in countries where the liquor traffic was not forbidden, were shipping vast quantities of wet goods to America, because of the high prices that could be obtained for the forbidden products. Whole fleets of whiskey-laden vessels were constantly sailing from Bermuda and other foreign West Indian ports, and anchoring in the ocean just outside the three-mile limit, where Uncle Sam’s jurisdiction ceases. Small boats by the score, equipped with powerful motors and manned by desperate crews, were smuggling the stuff ashore in the dark. The “dry Navy” composed of former submarine chasers, and the Customs Department’s own sea-going force of four boats were working hard to prevent the landing of these rum ships and to seize the smuggled liquor.