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Stockdale was so excited by the events of the evening, and the dilemmathat he was placed in between conscience and love, that he did not sleep,or even doze, but remained as broadly awake as at noonday. As soon asthe grey light began to touch ever so faintly the whiter objects in hisbedroom he arose, dressed himself, and went downstairs into the road.

The village was already astir. Several of the carriers had heard thewell-known tramp of Latimer's horse while they were undressing in thedark that night, and had already communicated with each other and Owletton the subject. The only doubt seemed to be about the safety of thosetubs which had been left under the church gallery-stairs, and after ashort discussion at the corner of the mill, it was agreed that theseshould be removed before it got lighter, and hidden in the middle of adouble hedge bordering the adjoining field. However, before anythingcould be carried into effect, the footsteps of many men were heard comingdown the lane from the highway.

'Damn it, here they be,' said Owlett, who, having already drawn the hatchand started his mill for the day, stood stolidly at the mill-door coveredwith flour, as if the interest of his whole soul was bound up in theshaking walls around him.

The two or three with whom he had been talking dispersed to their usualwork, and when the excise officers, and the formidable body of men theyhad hired, reached the village cross, between the mill and Mrs.Newberry's house, the village wore the natural aspect of a placebeginning its morning labours.

'Now,' said Latimer to his associates, who numbered thirteen men in all,'what I know is that the things are somewhere in this here place. Wehave got the day before us, and 'tis hard if we can't light upon 'em andget 'em to Budmouth Custom-house before night. First we will try thefuel-houses, and then we'll work our way into the chimmers, and then tothe ricks and stables, and so creep round. You have nothing but yournoses to guide ye, mind, so use 'em to-day if you never did in your livesbefore.'

Then the search began. Owlett, during the early part, watched from hismill-window, Lizzy from the door of her house, with the greatest self-possession. A farmer down below, who also had a share in the run, rodeabout with one eye on his fields and the other on Latimer and hismyrmidons, prepared to put them off the scent if he should be asked aquestion. Stockdale, who was no smuggler at all, felt more anxiety thanthe worst of them, and went about his studies with a heavy heart, comingfrequently to the door to ask Lizzy some question or other on theconsequences to her of the tubs being found.

'The consequences,' she said quietly, 'are simply that I shall lose 'em.As I have none in the house or garden, they can't touch me personally.'

'But you have some in the orchard?'

'Owlett rents that of me, and he lends it to others. So it will be hardto say who put any tubs there if they should be found.'

There was never such a tremendous sniffing known as that which took placein Nether-Moynton parish and its vicinity this day. All was donemethodically, and mostly on hands and knees. At different hours of theday they had different plans. From daybreak to breakfast-time theofficers used their sense of smell in a direct and straightforward manneronly, pausing nowhere but at such places as the tubs might be supposed tobe secreted in at that very moment, pending their removal on thefollowing night. Among the places tested and examined were

Hollow trees Cupboards CulvertsPotato-graves Clock-cases HedgerowsFuel-houses Chimney-flues Faggot-ricksBedrooms Rainwater-butts HaystacksApple-lofts Pigsties Coppers and ovens.

After breakfast they recommenced with renewed vigour, taking a new line;that is to say, directing their attention to clothes that might besupposed to have come in contact with the tubs in their removal from theshore, such garments being usually tainted with the spirit, owing to itsoozing between the staves. They now sniffed at -

Smock-frocks Smiths' and shoemakers' apronsOld shirts and waistcoats Knee-naps and hedging-glovesCoats and hats TarpaulinsBreeches and leggings Market-cloaksWomen's shawls and gowns Scarecrows

And as soon as the mid-day meal was over, they pushed their search intoplaces where the spirits might have been thrown away in alarm:-

Horse-ponds Mixens Sinks in yardsStable-drains Wet ditches Road-scrapings, andCinder-heaps Cesspools Back-door gutters.

But still these indefatigable excisemen discovered nothing more than theoriginal tell-tale smell in the road opposite Lizzy's house, which evenyet had not passed off.

'I'll tell ye what it is, men,' said Latimer, about three o'clock in theafternoon, 'we must begin over again. Find them tubs I will.'

The men, who had been hired for the day, looked at their hands and knees,muddy with creeping on all fours so frequently, and rubbed their noses,as if they had almost had enough of it; for the quantity of bad air whichhad passed into each one's nostril had rendered it nearly as insensibleas a flue. However, after a moment's hesitation, they prepared to startanew, except three, whose power of smell had quite succumbed under theexcessive wear and tear of the day.

By this time not a male villager was to be seen in the parish. Owlettwas not at his mill, the farmers were not in their fields, the parson wasnot in his garden, the smith had left his forge, and the wheelwright'sshop was silent.

'Where the divil are the folk gone?' said Latimer, waking up to the factof their absence, and looking round. 'I'll have 'em up for this! Whydon't they come and help us? There's not a man about the place but theMethodist parson, and he's an old woman. I demand assistance in theking's name!'

'We must find the jineral public afore we can demand that,' said hislieutenant.

'Well, well, we shall do better without 'em,' said Latimer, who changedhis moods at a moment's notice. 'But there's great cause of suspicion inthis silence and this keeping out of sight, and I'll bear it in mind. Nowwe will go across to Owlett's orchard, and see what we can find there.'

Stockdale, who heard this discussion from the garden-gate, over which hehad been leaning, was rather alarmed, and thought it a mistake of thevillagers to keep so completely out of the way. He himself, like theexcisemen, had been wondering for the last half-hour what could havebecome of them. Some labourers were of necessity engaged in distantfields, but the master-workmen should have been at home; though one andall, after just showing themselves at their shops, had apparently goneoff for the day. He went in to Lizzy, who sat at a back window sewing,and said, 'Lizzy, where are the men?'

Lizzy laughed. 'Where they mostly are when they're run so hard as this.'She cast her eyes to heaven. 'Up there,' she said.

Stockdale looked up. 'What--on the top of the church tower?' he asked,seeing the direction of her glance.

'Yes.'

'Well, I expect they will soon have to come down,' said he gravely. 'Ihave been listening to the officers, and they are going to search theorchard over again, and then every nook in the church.'

Lizzy looked alarmed for the first time. 'Will you go and tell ourfolk?' she said. 'They ought to be let know.' Seeing his consciencestruggling within him like a boiling pot, she added, 'No, never mind,I'll go myself.'

She went out, descended the garden, and climbed over the churchyard wallat the same time that the preventive-men were ascending the road to theorchard. Stockdale could do no less than follow her. By the time thatshe reached the tower entrance he was at her side, and they enteredtogether.

Nether-Moynton church-tower was, as in many villages, without a turret,and the only way to the top was by going up to the singers' gallery, andthence ascending by a ladder to a square trap-door in the floor of thebell-loft, above which a permanent ladder was fixed, passing through thebells to a hole in the roof. When Lizzy and Stockdale reached thegallery and looked up, nothing but the trap-door and the five holes forthe bell-ropes appeared. The ladder was gone.

'There's no getting up,' said Stockdale.

'O yes, there is,' said she. 'There's an eye looking at us at thismoment through a knot-hole in that trap-door.'

And as she spoke the trap opened, and the dark line of the ladder wasseen descending against the white-washed wall. When it touched thebottom Lizzy dragged it to its place, and said, 'If you'll go up, I'llfollow.'

The young man ascended, and presently found himself among consecratedbells for the first time in his life, nonconformity having been in theStockdale blood for some generations. He eyed them uneasily, and lookedround for Lizzy. Owlett stood here, holding the top of the ladder.

'What, be you really one of us?' said the miller.

'It seems so,' said Stockdale sadly.

'He's not,' said Lizzy, who overheard. 'He's neither for nor against us.He'll do us no harm.'

She stepped up beside them, and then they went on to the next stage,which, when they had clambered over the dusty bell-carriages, was of easyascent, leading towards the hole through which the pale sky appeared, andinto the open air. Owlett remained behind for a moment, to pull up thelower ladder.

'Keep down your heads,' said a voice, as soon as they set foot on theflat.

Stockdale here beheld all the missing parishioners, lying on theirstomachs on the tower roof, except a few who, elevated on their hands andknees, were peeping through the embrasures of the parapet. Stockdale didthe same, and saw the village lying like a map below him, over whichmoved the figures of the excisemen, each foreshortened to a crablikeobject, the crown of his hat forming a circular disc in the centre ofhim. Some of the men had turned their heads when the young preacher'sfigure arose among them.

'What, Mr. Stockdale?' said Matt Grey, in a tone of surprise.

'I'd as lief that it hadn't been,' said Jim Clarke. 'If the pa'sonshould see him a trespassing here in his tower, 'twould be none thebetter for we, seeing how 'a do hate chapel-members. He'd never buy atub of us again, and he's as good a customer as we have got this side o'Warm'll.'

'Where is the pa'son?' said Lizzy.

'In his house, to be sure, that he mid see nothing of what's goingon--where all good folks ought to be, and this young man likewise.'

'Well, he has brought some news,' said Lizzy. 'They are going to searchthe orchet and church; can we do anything if they should find?'

'Yes,' said her cousin Owlett. 'That's what we've been talking o', andwe have settled our line. Well, be dazed!'

The exclamation was caused by his perceiving that some of the searchers,having got into the orchard, and begun stooping and creeping hither andthither, were pausing in the middle, where a tree smaller than the restwas growing. They drew closer, and bent lower than ever upon the ground.

'O, my tubs!' said Lizzy faintly, as she peered through the parapet atthem.

'They have got 'em, 'a b'lieve,' said Owlett.

The interest in the movements of the officers was so keen that not asingle eye was looking in any other direction; but at that moment a shoutfrom the church beneath them attracted the attention of the smugglers, asit did also of the party in the orchard, who sprang to their feet andwent towards the churchyard wall. At the same time those of theGovernment men who had entered the church unperceived by the smugglerscried aloud, 'Here be some of 'em at last.'

The smugglers remained in a blank silence, uncertain whether 'some of'em' meant tubs or men; but again peeping cautiously over the edge of thetower they learnt that tubs were the things descried; and soon thesefated articles were brought one by one into the middle of the churchyardfrom their hiding-place under the gallery-stairs.

'They are going to put 'em on Hinton's vault till they find the rest!'said Lizzy hopelessly. The excisemen had, in fact, begun to pile up thetubs on a large stone slab which was fixed there; and when all werebrought out from the tower, two or three of the men were left standing bythem, the rest of the party again proceeding to the orchard.

The interest of the smugglers in the next manoeuvres of their enemiesbecame painfully intense. Only about thirty tubs had been secreted inthe lumber of the tower, but seventy were hidden in the orchard, makingup all that they had brought ashore as yet, the remainder of the cargohaving been tied to a sinker and dropped overboard for another night'soperations. The excisemen, having re-entered the orchard, acted as ifthey were positive that here lay hidden the rest of the tubs, which theywere determined to find before nightfall. They spread themselves outround the field, and advancing on all fours as before, went anew roundevery apple-tree in the enclosure. The young tree in the middle againled them to pause, and at length the whole company gathered there in away which signified that a second chain of reasoning had led to the sameresults as the first.

When they had examined the sod hereabouts for some minutes, one of themen rose, ran to a disused porch of the church where tools were kept, andreturned with the sexton's pickaxe and shovel, with which they set towork.

'Are they really buried there?' said the minister, for the grass was sogreen and uninjured that it was difficult to believe it had beendisturbed. The smugglers were too interested to reply, and presentlythey saw, to their chagrin, the officers stand several on each side ofthe tree; and, stooping and applying their hands to the soil, they bodilylifted the tree and the turf around it. The apple-tree now showed itselfto be growing in a shallow box, with handles for lifting at each of thefour sides. Under the site of the tree a square hole was revealed, andan exciseman went and looked down.

'It is all up now,' said Owlett quietly. 'And now all of ye get downbefore they notice we are here; and be ready for our next move. I hadbetter bide here till dark, or they may take me on suspicion, as 'tis onmy ground. I'll be with ye as soon as daylight begins to pink in.'

'And I?' said Lizzy.

'You please look to the linch-pins and screws; then go indoors and knownothing at all. The chaps will do the rest.'

The ladder was replaced, and all but Owlett descended, the men passingoff one by one at the back of the church, and vanishing on theirrespective errands.

Lizzy walked boldly along the street, followed closely by the minister.

'You are going indoors, Mrs. Newberry?' he said.

She knew from the words 'Mrs. Newberry' that the division between themhad widened yet another degree.

'I am not going home,' she said. 'I have a little thing to do before Igo in. Martha Sarah will get your tea.'

'O, I don't mean on that account,' said Stockdale. 'What can you have todo further in this unhallowed affair?'

'Only a little,' she said.

'What is that? I'll go with you.'

'No, I shall go by myself. Will you please go indoors? I shall be therein less than an hour.'

'You are not going to run any danger, Lizzy?' said the young man, histenderness reasserting itself.

'None whatever--worth mentioning,' answered she, and went down towardsthe Cross.

Stockdale entered the garden gate, and stood behind it looking on. Theexcisemen were still busy in the orchard, and at last he was tempted toenter, and watch their proceedings. When he came closer he found thatthe secret cellar, of whose existence he had been totally unaware, wasformed by timbers placed across from side to side about a foot under theground, and grassed over.

The excisemen looked up at Stockdale's fair and downy countenance, andevidently thinking him above suspicion, went on with their work again. Assoon as all the tubs were taken out, they began tearing up the turf;pulling out the timbers, and breaking in the sides, till the cellar waswholly dismantled and shapeless, the apple-tree lying with its roots highto the air. But the hole which had in its time held so much contrabandmerchandize was never completely filled up, either then or afterwards, adepression in the greensward marking the spot to this day.