No Surrender! | Page 4

and the island were but a bit wider, it
would be perfect; but unfortunately it is so narrow that it is only on the
very darkest night one can hope to get through, unnoticed. However,
we can do very well with the southern channel and, after all, it is safer.
We can get any number of boats, and the Henriette has only to anchor
half a mile outside the entrance. We know when she is coming, and
have but to show a light, directly she makes her signal, and the boats
will put out from Radhorn passage and Hamworth; while messengers
start for Bushaw, and Scopland, and Creach, and a dozen farmhouses,
and the carts are sure to be at the spot where they had been warned to
assemble, by the time the boats come along with the kegs; and
everything is miles away, in hiding, before morning.
"If it is a dark night the Henriette makes off again, and comes boldly in

the next afternoon. If one of the revenue boats, either from here or
Studland, happens to come across her before she gets up anchor, there
she is--the crew are all asleep, with the exception of a man on watch;
she is simply waiting to come in, when there is light enough to enable
her to make her way up the passage."
James Stansfield was, in fact, the organizer of the smuggling business
carried on at Poole, and the adjacent harbours. There was not a
farmhouse, among the hills to the south of the great sheet of water, with
which he was not in communication. Winter was the season at which
the trade was most busy, for the short summer nights were altogether
unsuited for the work; and when the cold weather drove the wildfowl in
for shelter, there was splendid shooting, and Ralph and John were able
to combine amusement with business, and to keep the larder well
stocked.
The night signals were made from a cleft in the sand hills, half a mile
from the house; the light being so arranged that it could not be seen
from Brownsea Island, though visible to those on the south side, from
Studland right away over the hills to Corfe Castle, even to Wareham. It
was shown but for half a minute, just as the bells of Poole Church
struck nine. At that hour, when the lugger was expected, there was a
lookout at the door of every farmhouse and, the moment the light was
seen, preparations were made for the landing at the spot of which notice
had been given, by one or other of the boys, on the previous day. Then,
from quiet little inlets, the boats would put off noiselessly, directly
there was water to float them; for it was only at high tides that the
shallows were covered. They would gather in the channel south of
Brownsea, where the boys and often their father would be in their boats
in readiness, until a momentary glimmer of a light, so placed on board
the lugger that it could only be seen from the spot where they were
awaiting it, showed the position of the craft and their readiness to
discharge cargo.
It was exciting work, and profitable; and so well was it managed that,
although it had been carried on for some years, no suspicion had ever
entered the minds of any of the revenue officers. Sometimes many

weeks would elapse between the visits of the lugger, for she was
obliged to make her appearance frequently at other ports, to maintain
her character as a trader; and was, as such, well known all along the
coast.
It was only a year since the Henriette had taken the place of another
lugger, that had previously carried on the work, but had been wrecked
on the French coast. She had been the property of the same owner, or
rather of the same firm; for Jean Martin, who had been first mate on
board the other craft, had invested some of his own money in the
Henriette, and assumed the command. It was noticed, at Poole, that the
Henriette used that port more frequently than her predecessor had done;
and indeed, she not infrequently came in, in the daytime, with her hold
as full as when she had left Nantes.
It was on one of these occasions that Jean Martin, on coming up to
Netherstock, had a long talk with the squire.
"So you want my daughter Patsey?" the latter said, when his visitor had
told his story. "Well, it has certainly never entered my mind that any of
my girls should marry a Frenchman. I don't say that I have not heard
my boys making a sly joke, more than once, when the Henriette was
seen coming in, and I