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As he had expected, she left the house at the same hour at night, thistime passing his door without stealth, as if she knew very well that hewould be watching, and were resolved to brave his displeasure. He wasquite ready, opened the door quickly, and reached the back door almost assoon as she.

'Then you will go, Lizzy?' he said as he stood on the step beside her,who now again appeared as a little man with a face altogether unsuited tohis clothes.

'I must,' she said, repressed by his stern manner.

'Then I shall go too,' said he.

'And I am sure you will enjoy it!' she exclaimed in more buoyant tones.'Everybody does who tries it.'

'God forbid that I should!' he said. 'But I must look after you.'

They opened the wicket and went up the road abreast of each other, but atsome distance apart, scarcely a word passing between them. The eveningwas rather less favourable to smuggling enterprise than the last hadbeen, the wind being lower, and the sky somewhat clear towards the north.

'It is rather lighter,' said Stockdale.

''Tis, unfortunately,' said she. 'But it is only from those few starsover there. The moon was new to-day at four o'clock, and I expectedclouds. I hope we shall be able to do it this dark, for when we have tosink 'em for long it makes the stuff taste bleachy, and folks don't likeit so well.'

Her course was different from that of the preceding night, branching offto the left over Lord's Barrow as soon as they had got out of the laneand crossed the highway. By the time they reached Chaldon Down,Stockdale, who had been in perplexed thought as to what he should say toher, decided that he would not attempt expostulation now, while she wasexcited by the adventure, but wait till it was over, and endeavour tokeep her from such practices in future. It occurred to him once ortwice, as they rambled on, that should they be surprised by theexcisemen, his situation would be more awkward than hers, for it would bedifficult to prove his true motive in coming to the spot; but the riskwas a slight consideration beside his wish to be with her.

They now arrived at a ravine which lay on the outskirts of Chaldon, avillage two miles on their way towards the point of the shore theysought. Lizzy broke the silence this time: 'I have to wait here to meetthe carriers. I don't know if they have come yet. As I told you, we goto Lulstead Cove to-night, and it is two miles further than Ringsworth.'

It turned out that the men had already come; for while she spoke two orthree dozen heads broke the line of the slope, and a company of them atonce descended from the bushes where they had been lying in wait. Thesecarriers were men whom Lizzy and other proprietors regularly employed tobring the tubs from the boat to a hiding-place inland. They were allyoung fellows of Nether-Moynton, Chaldon, and the neighbourhood, quietand inoffensive persons, who simply engaged to carry the cargo for Lizzyand her cousin Owlett, as they would have engaged in any other labour forwhich they were fairly well paid.

At a word from her they closed in together. 'You had better take itnow,' she said to them; and handed to each a packet. It contained sixshillings, their remuneration for the night's undertaking, which was paidbeforehand without reference to success or failure; but, besides this,they had the privilege of selling as agents when the run was successfullymade. As soon as it was done, she said to them, 'The place is the oldone near Lulstead Cove;' the men till that moment not having been toldwhither they were bound, for obvious reasons. 'Owlett will meet youthere,' added Lizzy. 'I shall follow behind, to see that we are notwatched.'

The carriers went on, and Stockdale and Mrs. Newberry followed at adistance of a stone's throw. 'What do these men do by day?' he said.

'Twelve or fourteen of them are labouring men. Some are brickmakers,some carpenters, some shoe-makers, some thatchers. They are all known tome very well. Nine of 'em are of your own congregation.'

'I can't help that,' said Stockdale.

'O, I know you can't. I only told you. The others are morechurch-inclined, because they supply the pa'son with all the spirits herequires, and they don't wish to show unfriendliness to a customer.'

'How do you choose 'em?' said Stockdale.

'We choose 'em for their closeness, and because they are strong andsurefooted, and able to carry a heavy load a long way without beingtired.'

Stockdale sighed as she enumerated each particular, for it proved how farinvolved in the business a woman must be who was so well acquainted withits conditions and needs. And yet he felt more tenderly towards her atthis moment than he had felt all the foregoing day. Perhaps it was thather experienced manner and hold indifference stirred his admiration inspite of himself.

'Take my arm, Lizzy,' he murmured.

'I don't want it,' she said. 'Besides, we may never be to each otheragain what we once have been.'

'That depends upon you,' said he, and they went on again as before.

The hired carriers paced along over Chaldon Down with as littlehesitation as if it had been day, avoiding the cart-way, and leaving thevillage of East Chaldon on the left, so as to reach the crest of the hillat a lonely trackless place not far from the ancient earthwork calledRound Pound. An hour's brisk walking brought them within sound of thesea, not many hundred yards from Lulstead Cove. Here they paused, andLizzy and Stockdale came up with them, when they went on together to theverge of the cliff. One of the men now produced an iron bar, which hedrove firmly into the soil a yard from the edge, and attached to it arope that he had uncoiled from his body. They all began to descend,partly stepping, partly sliding down the incline, as the rope slippedthrough their hands.

'You will not go to the bottom, Lizzy?' said Stockdale anxiously.

'No. I stay here to watch,' she said. 'Owlett is down there.'

The men remained quite silent when they reached the shore; and the nextthing audible to the two at the top was the dip of heavy oars, and thedashing of waves against a boat's bow. In a moment the keel gentlytouched the shingle, and Stockdale heard the footsteps of the thirty-sixcarriers running forwards over the pebbles towards the point of landing.

There was a sousing in the water as of a brood of ducks plunging in,showing that the men had not been particular about keeping their legs, oreven their waists, dry from the brine: but it was impossible to see whatthey were doing, and in a few minutes the shingle was trampled again. Theiron bar sustaining the rope, on which Stockdale's hand rested, began toswerve a little, and the carriers one by one appeared climbing up thesloping cliff; dripping audibly as they came, and sustaining themselvesby the guide-rope. Each man on reaching the top was seen to be carryinga pair of tubs, one on his back and one on his chest, the two being slungtogether by cords passing round the chine hoops, and resting on thecarrier's shoulders. Some of the stronger men carried three by puttingan extra one on the top behind, but the customary load was a pair, thesebeing quite weighty enough to give their bearer the sensation of havingchest and backbone in contact after a walk of four or five miles.

'Where is Owlett?' said Lizzy to one of them.

'He will not come up this way,' said the carrier. 'He's to bide on shoretill we be safe off.' Then, without waiting for the rest, the foremostmen plunged across the down; and, when the last had ascended, Lizzypulled up the rope, wound it round her arm, wriggled the bar from thesod, and turned to follow the carriers.

'You are very anxious about Owlett's safety,' said the minister.

'Was there ever such a man!' said Lizzy. 'Why, isn't he my cousin?'

'Yes. Well, it is a bad night's work,' said Stockdale heavily. 'ButI'll carry the bar and rope for you.'

'Thank God, the tubs have got so far all right,' said she.

Stockdale shook his head, and, taking the bar, walked by her side towardsthe downs; and the moan of the sea was heard no more.

'Is this what you meant the other day when you spoke of having businesswith Owlett?' the young man asked.

'This is it,' she replied. 'I never see him on any other matter.'

'A partnership of that kind with a young man is very odd.'

'It was begun by my father and his, who were brother-laws.'

Her companion could not blind himself to the fact that where tastes andpursuits were so akin as Lizzy's and Owlett's, and where risks wereshared, as with them, in every undertaking, there would be a peculiarappropriateness in her answering Owlett's standing question on matrimonyin the affirmative. This did not soothe Stockdale, its tendency beingrather to stimulate in him an effort to make the pair as inappropriate aspossible, and win her away from this nocturnal crew to correctness ofconduct and a minister's parlour in some far-removed inland county.

They had been walking near enough to the file of carriers for Stockdaleto perceive that, when they got into the road to the village, they splitup into two companies of unequal size, each of which made off in adirection of its own. One company, the smaller of the two, went towardsthe church, and by the time that Lizzy and Stockdale reached their ownhouse these men had scaled the churchyard wall, and were proceedingnoiselessly over the grass within.

'I see that Owlett has arranged for one batch to be put in the churchagain,' observed Lizzy. 'Do you remember my taking you there the firstnight you came?'

'Yes, of course,' said Stockdale. 'No wonder you had permission tobroach the tubs--they were his, I suppose?'

'No, they were not--they were mine; I had permission from myself. Theday after that they went several miles inland in a waggon-load of manure,and sold very well.'

At this moment the group of men who had made off to the left some timebefore began leaping one by one from the hedge opposite Lizzy's house,and the first man, who had no tubs upon his shoulders, came forward.

'Mrs. Newberry, isn't it?' he said hastily.

'Yes, Jim,' said she. 'What's the matter?'

'I find that we can't put any in Badger's Clump to-night, Lizzy,' saidOwlett. 'The place is watched. We must sling the apple-tree in theorchet if there's time. We can't put any more under the church lumberthan I have sent on there, and my mixen hev already more in en than issafe.'

'Very well,' she said. 'Be quick about it--that's all. What can I do?'

'Nothing at all, please. Ah, it is the minister!--you two that can't doanything had better get indoors and not be zeed.'

While Owlett thus conversed, in a tone so full of contraband anxiety andso free from lover's jealousy, the men who followed him had beendescending one by one from the hedge; and it unfortunately happened thatwhen the hindmost took his leap, the cord slipped which sustained histubs: the result was that both the kegs fell into the road, one of thembeing stove in by the blow.

''Od drown it all!' said Owlett, rushing back.

'It is worth a good deal, I suppose?' said Stockdale.

'O no--about two guineas and half to us now,' said Lizzy excitedly. 'Itisn't that--it is the smell! It is so blazing strong before it has beenlowered by water, that it smells dreadfully when spilt in the road likethat! I do hope Latimer won't pass by till it is gone off.'

Owlett and one or two others picked up the burst tub and began to scrapeand trample over the spot, to disperse the liquor as much as possible;and then they all entered the gate of Owlett's orchard, which adjoinedLizzy's garden on the right. Stockdale did not care to follow them, forseveral on recognizing him had looked wonderingly at his presence, thoughthey said nothing. Lizzy left his side and went to the bottom of thegarden, looking over the hedge into the orchard, where the men could bedimly seen bustling about, and apparently hiding the tubs. All was donenoiselessly, and without a light; and when it was over they dispersed indifferent directions, those who had taken their cargoes to the churchhaving already gone off to their homes.

Lizzy returned to the garden-gate, over which Stockdale was stillabstractedly leaning. 'It is all finished: I am going indoors now,' shesaid gently. 'I will leave the door ajar for you.'

'O no--you needn't,' said Stockdale; 'I am coming too.'

But before either of them had moved, the faint clatter of horses' hoofsbroke upon the ear, and it seemed to come from the point where the trackacross the down joined the hard road.

'They are just too late!' cried Lizzy exultingly.

'Who?' said Stockdale.

'Latimer, the riding-officer, and some assistant of his. We had bettergo indoors.'

They entered the house, and Lizzy bolted the door. 'Please don't get alight, Mr. Stockdale,' she said.

'Of course I will not,' said he.

'I thought you might be on the side of the king,' said Lizzy, withfaintest sarcasm.

'I am,' said Stockdale. 'But, Lizzy Newberry, I love you, and you knowit perfectly well; and you ought to know, if you do not, what I havesuffered in my conscience on your account these last few days!'

'I guess very well,' she said hurriedly. 'Yet I don't see why. Ah, youare better than I!'

The trotting of the horses seemed to have again died away, and the pairof listeners touched each other's fingers in the cold 'Good-night' ofthose whom something seriously divided. They were on the landing, butbefore they had taken three steps apart, the tramp of the horsemensuddenly revived, almost close to the house. Lizzy turned to thestaircase window, opened the casement about an inch, and put her faceclose to the aperture. 'Yes, one of 'em is Latimer,' she whispered. 'Healways rides a white horse. One would think it was the last colour for aman in that line.'

Stockdale looked, and saw the white shape of the animal as it passed by;but before the riders had gone another ten yards, Latimer reined in hishorse, and said something to his companion which neither Stockdale norLizzy could hear. Its drift was, however, soon made evident, for theother man stopped also; and sharply turning the horses' heads theycautiously retraced their steps. When they were again opposite Mrs.Newberry's garden, Latimer dismounted, and the man on the dark horse didthe same.

Lizzy and Stockdale, intently listening and observing the proceedings,naturally put their heads as close as possible to the slit formed by theslightly opened casement; and thus it occurred that at last their cheekscame positively into contact. They went on listening, as if they did notknow of the singular incident which had happened to their faces, and thepressure of each to each rather increased than lessened with the lapse oftime.

They could hear the excisemen sniffing the air like hounds as they pacedslowly along. When they reached the spot where the tub had burst, bothstopped on the instant.

'Ay, ay, 'tis quite strong here,' said the second officer. 'Shall weknock at the door?'

'Well, no,' said Latimer. 'Maybe this is only a trick to put us off thescent. They wouldn't kick up this stink anywhere near theirhiding-place. I have known such things before.'

'Anyhow, the things, or some of 'em, must have been brought this way,'said the other.

'Yes,' said Latimer musingly. 'Unless 'tis all done to tole us the wrongway. I have a mind that we go home for to-night without saying a word,and come the first thing in the morning with more hands. I know theyhave storages about here, but we can do nothing by this owl's light. Wewill look round the parish and see if everybody is in bed, John; and ifall is quiet, we will do as I say.'

They went on, and the two inside the window could hear them passingleisurely through the whole village, the street of which curved round atthe bottom and entered the turnpike road at another junction. This waythe excisemen followed, and the amble of their horses died quite away.

'What will you do?' said Stockdale, withdrawing from his position.

She knew that he alluded to the coming search by the officers, to diverther attention from their own tender incident by the casement, which hewished to be passed over as a thing rather dreamt of than done. 'O,nothing,' she replied, with as much coolness as she could command underher disappointment at his manner. 'We often have such storms as this.You would not be frightened if you knew what fools they are. Fancyriding o' horseback through the place: of course they will hear and seenobody while they make that noise; but they are always afraid to get off,in case some of our fellows should burst out upon 'em, and tie them up tothe gate-post, as they have done before now. Good-night, Mr. Stockdale.'

She closed the window and went to her room, where a tear fell from hereyes; and that not because of the alertness of the riding-officers.