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'
'
Are you going to let the men know?' whispered Herrick.
Damn the men!' said Davis. 'It's beyond that. We've got to know
ourselves.'
Three cases were sent on deck and sampled in turn; from each bottle,
as the captain smashed it with the axe, the champagne ran bubbling and
creaming.
'Go deeper, can't you?' cried Davis to the Kanakas in the hold.
The command gave the signal for a disastrous change. Case after case
came up, bottle after bottle was burst and bled mere water. Deeper
yet, and they came upon a layer where there was scarcely so much as
the intention to deceive; where the cases were no longer branded, the
bottles no longer wired or papered, where the fraud was manifest and
stared them in the face.
'Here's about enough of this foolery!' said Davis. 'Stow back the cases
in the hold, Uncle, and get the broken crockery overboard. Come with
me,' he added to his co-adventurers, and led the way back into the
cabin.
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