CHAPTER XII THE MYSTERY OF THE WHEAT SACKS At once Willie was afire with the idea. Here was his chance. If his suspicions were correct, there must be a great deal of stuff for sale in these little shops that had been brought into the country without paying the duty on it. One thing was certain: if duty had been paid on these articles, they could never be sold at the prices asked for them. There was absolutely no question about that. The only point in doubt was whether the goods were home-made as represented, or imported. The more Willie turned the matter over in his mind, the more certain he became that many of the pieces were of foreign make. He distinctly recalled several shops that he had visited, where there were dozens of lace pieces on view. There might be many more not in sight. But certainly it would have taken many women many weeks to make all the pieces offered in just one of these shops. Willie was certain that the women of the Armenian quarter could never have done all that work. But it was one thing to make up his mind that the goods in question were smuggled, and quite another thing to decide how he should go about proving it. In fact, at first, Willie could see no way by which he was to get the proof. But as he considered the matter, the situation began to clarify itself. Probably there were some particular men or firms engaged in bringing the stuff into the country. If he could find who these men were, it might not be so difficult to find how they got the stuff in. Willie fell to wondering how goods like these laces could be packed so as to deceive the customs inspectors. That seemed to be a simple thing to do. The goods could be rolled up or doubled up and hidden in almost anything that was dry and clean. It occurred to Willie that if one were to study the lists of imports one might find a clue there. If any particular Armenian merchant were making repeated importations, there might be reason for an investigation of these importations. But when he came to try this method, he found it was anything but simple. To begin with, he did not have access to the needed records. To get access, he would have to explain why he wanted to examine the records. He had made up his mind to say nothing about his suspicions until he had something definite to go on. So he dropped the idea of examining the import lists. The idea, as he saw later, was a sound one.