'I've been out for a stroll, to look for more hid tubs, to deliver 'em up to Gover'ment.' 'O yes, Hardman, we know it,' said Latimer, with withering sarcasm.

'We know that you'll deliver 'em up to Gover'ment.

We know that all the parish is helping us, and have been all day! Now you please walk along with me down to your shop, and kindly let me hire ye in the king's name.' They went down the lane together; and presently there resounded from the smithy the ring of a hammer not very briskly swung.

However, the carts and horses were got into some sort of travelling condition, but it was not until after the clock had struck six, when the muddy roads were glistening under the horizontal light of the fading day.

The smuggled tubs were soon packed into the vehicles, and Latimer, with three of his assistants, drove slowly out of the village in the direction of the port of Budmouth, some considerable number of miles distant, the other excisemen being left to watch for the remainder of the cargo, which they knew to have been sunk somewhere between Ringsworth and Lulstead Cove, and to unearth Owlett, the only person clearly implicated by the discovery of the cave.
Women and children stood at the doors as the carts, each chalked with the Government pitchfork, passed in the increasing twilight; and as they stood they looked at the confiscated property with a melancholy expression that told only too plainly the relation which they bore to the trade.
'Well, Lizzy,' said Stockdale, when the crackle of the wheels had nearly died away.