Wessex Poems and Other Verses

ve, that he did not sleep, or even doze, but remained as broadly awake as at noonday. As soon as the grey light began

ject. The only doubt seemed to be about the safety of those tubs which had been left under the church gallery-stairs, and after a short discussion at the corner of the mill, it was agreed that these should be removed befor

arted his mill for the day, stood stolidly at the mill-door covered with flour,

icers, and the formidable body of men they had hired, reached the village cross, between the mill and

and 'tis hard if we can't light upon 'em and get 'em to Budmouth Custom-house before night. First we will try the fuel-houses, and then we'll work our way into the chim

run, rode about with one eye on his fields and the other on Latimer and his myrmidons, prepared to put them off the scent if he should be asked a question. Stockdale, who was no smuggler at all, felt

y that I shall lose 'em. As I have none in the h

ve some in

to others. So it will be hard to say who p

. At different hours of the day they had different plans. From daybreak to breakfast-time the officers used their sense of smell in a direct and straightforward manner only, pausing

es Cupboar

es Clock-ca

Chimney-flue

inwater-but

igsties Coppe

ion to clothes that might be supposed to have come in contact with the tubs in their removal from the shore, su

miths' and sho

stcoats Knee-naps

d hats T

d leggings

wls and gow

y pushed their search into places where the s

Mixens Sin

et ditches Road

Cesspools Bac

ng more than the original tell-tale smell in the road op

, about three o'clock in the afternoon, 'we

had almost had enough of it; for the quantity of bad air which had passed into each one's nostril had rendered it nearly as insensible as a flue. However,

at his mill, the farmers were not in their fields, the parson was not in his

king round. 'I'll have 'em up for this! Why don't they come and help us? There's not a man about t

public afore we can demand

notice. 'But there's great cause of suspicion in this silence and this keeping out of sight, and

f, like the excisemen, had been wondering for the last half-hour what could have become of them. Some labourers were of necessity engaged in distant fields, but the master-workmen should have been at

n they're run so hard as this.' She cast

op of the church tower?' he asked,

es

y. 'I have been listening to the officers, and they are going to

she said. 'They ought to be let know.' Seeing his conscience struggling

e preventive-men were ascending the road to the orchard. Stockdale could do no less than follow h

ding by a ladder to a square trap-door in the floor of the bell-loft, above which a permanent ladder was fixed, passing through the bells to a hole in the ro

etting up,' s

an eye looking at us at this moment

en descending against the white-washed wall. When it touched the bottom

e in his life, nonconformity having been in the Stockdale blood for some generations. He eyed

ally one of us?'

,' said Stoc

rheard. 'He's neither for nor a

over the dusty bell-carriages, was of easy ascent, leading towards the hole through which the pale s

aid a voice, as soon as t

embrasures of the parapet. Stockdale did the same, and saw the village lying like a map below him, over which moved the figures of the excisemen, each foreshortened to a c

?' said Matt Grey, i

here in his tower, 'twould be none the better for we, seeing how 'a do hate chapel-members. He

he pa'son?'

othing of what's going on-where all good fol

'They are going to search the orchet and chu

s what we've been talking o', and we

hard, and begun stooping and creeping hither and thither, were pausing in the middle, where a tr

faintly, as she peered th

'em, 'a b'lieve

rch beneath them attracted the attention of the smugglers, as it did also of the party in the orchard, who sprang to their feet and went towards the church

cautiously over the edge of the tower they learnt that tubs were the things descried; and soon these fated art

fact, begun to pile up the tubs on a large stone slab which was fixed there; and when all were brought out from th

been tied to a sinker and dropped overboard for another night's operations. The excisemen, having re-entered the orchard, acted as if they were positive that here lay hidden the rest of the tubs, which they were determined to find before nightfall. They spread themselves out round the fiel

n rose, ran to a disused porch of the church where tools were kept, and r

ently they saw, to their chagrin, the officers stand several on each side of the tree; and, stooping and applying their hands to the soil, they bodily lifted the tree and the turf around it. The apple

re here; and be ready for our next move. I had better bide here till dark, or they may take

?' sai

screws; then go indoors and know noth

ed, the men passing off one by one at the back of t

ng the street, followed

ndoors, Mrs. New

erry' that the division between th

have a little thing to do before I g

id Stockdale. 'What can you have to d

little,'

at? I'll go

you please go indoors? I shall

ger, Lizzy?' said the young man,

oning,' answered she, and

was tempted to enter, and watch their proceedings. When he came closer he found that the secret cellar, of whose existence he

began tearing up the turf; pulling out the timbers, and breaking in the sides, till the cellar was wholly dismantled and shapeless, the apple-tree lying with its roots high to the air. Bu