No Surrender! | Page 3

not what they were, it is still possible to
buy a keg of brandy, occasionally, or a few yards of silk or lace, that
have never paid duty."
"Yes, no doubt occasionally some small craft manages to run a few
kegs or bales; and unfortunately the gentry, instead of aiding his
majesty's representatives, keep the thing alive by purchasing spirits,
and so on, from those who have been concerned in their landing."
"Well, you know, Captain Whittier, human nature is pretty strong. If a
pedlar comes along here with ribbons and fal-lals, and offers them to
the girls at half the price at which they could buy them down at Poole,
you can hardly expect them to take lofty ground, and charge the man
with having smuggled them."
"I do not think the young ladies are offenders that way," the officer said,
"for I have never yet seen them in foreign gear of any sort. I should, if
you will allow me to say so, be more inclined, were you not a justice of
the peace, to suspect you of having dealings with these men; for your

brandy is generally of the best."
"I don't set up to be better than my neighbours, captain," the squire said,
with a laugh; "and if the chance comes my way, I will not say that I
should refuse to buy a good article, at the price I should pay for a bad
one in the town."
"Your tobacco is good, too, squire."
"Yes, I am particular about my tobacco, and I must say that I think
government lays too high a duty on it. If I had the making of the laws, I
would put a high duty on bad tobacco, and a low duty on a good article;
that would encourage the importation of good wholesome stuff.
"I suppose you have heard no rumours of any suspicious looking craft
being heard of, off the coast?"
"No, I think that they carry on their business a good deal farther to the
west now. My post is becoming quite a sinecure. The Henriette came
into Poole this morning, but we never trouble about her. She is a fair
trader, and is well known at every port between Portsmouth and
Plymouth as such. She always comes in at daylight, and lays her
foresail aback till we board her, and send a couple of men with her into
Poole or Wareham. Her cargo is always consigned to well-known
merchants, at all the ports she enters; and consists of wines, for the
most part, though she does occasionally bring in brandy.
"He is a fine young fellow, the skipper, Jean Martin. I believe his father
is a large wine merchant, at Nantes. I suppose you know him, squire?"
"Yes, I have met him several times down in the town, and indeed have
bought many a barrel of wine of him. He has been up here more than
once, for I have told him, whenever he has anything particularly good
either in wine or spirits, to let me know. He talks a little English, and
my girls like to have a chat with him, about what is going on on his
side of the water. He offered, the other day, to give Leigh a trip across
to Nantes, if I was willing.

"Things seem to be going on very badly in Paris, by what he says; but
he does not anticipate any troubles in the west of France, where there
seems to be none of that ill feeling, between the different classes, that
there is in other parts."
The departure of Captain Whittier was always followed by a broad
smile on the faces of the elder boys, breaking occasionally into a hearty
laugh, in which the squire joined.
"I call him an insufferable ass," Ralph said, on this particular evening.
"It would be difficult, as father says, to find an officer who is, as far as
we are concerned, so admirably suited for his position."
"That is so, Ralph. There is scarcely a man, woman, or child in this part
of Dorsetshire who does not know that there are more goods run, on
that piece of water over there, than on the whole south coast of England.
I sincerely trust that nothing will ever bring about his recall. Personally,
I would pay two or three hundred a year, out of my own pocket, rather
than lose him. There is no such place anywhere for the work; why,
there are some fourteen or fifteen inlets where goods can be landed at
high water and, once past the island, I don't care how sharp the revenue
men may be, the betting is fifty to one against their being at the right
spot at the right time.
"If the passage between our point