CHAPTER V--HOW THEY WENT TO LULSTEAD COVE
As he had expected, she left the house at the same hour at night,
this time passing his door without stealth, as if she knew very well
that he would be watching, and were resolved to brave his
displeasure. He was quite ready, opened the door quickly, and
reached the back door almost as soon 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 to his 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 at some distance apart, scarcely a word passing between them.
The evening was rather less favourable to smuggling enterprise than
the last had been, 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
stars over there. The moon was new to-day at four o'clock, and I
expected clouds. I hope we shall be able to do it this dark, for
when we have to sink 'em for long it makes the stuff taste bleachy,
and folks don't like it so well.'
Her course was different from that of the preceding night, branching
off to the left over Lord's Barrow as soon as they had got out of
the lane and crossed the highway. By the time they reached Chaldon
Down, Stockdale, who had been in perplexed thought as to what he
should say to her, decided that he would not attempt expostulation
now, while she was excited by the adventure, but wait till it was
over, and endeavour to keep her from such practices in future. It
occurred to him once or twice, as they rambled on, that should they
be surprised by the excisemen, his situation would be more awkward
than hers, for it would be difficult to prove his true motive in
coming to the spot; but the risk was a slight consideration beside
his wish to be with her.
They now arrived at a ravine which lay on the outskirts of Chaldon,
a village two miles on their way towards the point of the shore they
sought. Lizzy broke the silence this time: 'I have to wait here to
meet the carriers. I don't know if they have come yet. As I told
you, we go to 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
or three dozen heads broke the line of the slope, and a company of
them at once descended from the bushes where they had been lying in
wait. These carriers were men whom Lizzy and other proprietors
regularly employed to bring the tubs from the boat to a hiding-place
inland. They were all young fellows of Nether-Moynton, Chaldon, and
the neighbourhood, quiet and inoffensive persons, who simply engaged
to carry the cargo for Lizzy and her cousin Owlett, as they would
have engaged in any other labour for which they were fairly well
paid.
At a word from her they closed in together. 'You had better take it
now,' she said to them; and handed to each a packet. It contained
six shillings, their remuneration for the night's undertaking, which
was paid beforehand without reference to success or failure; but,
besides this, they had the privilege of selling as agents when the
run was successfully made. As soon as it was done, she said to
them, 'The place is the old one near Lulstead Cove;' the men till
that moment not having been told whither they were bound, for
obvious reasons. 'Owlett will meet you there,' added Lizzy. 'I
shall follow behind, to see that we are not watched.'
The carriers went on, and Stockdale and Mrs. Newberry followed at a
distance 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 to me 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 more church-
inclined, because they supply the pa'son with all the spirits he
requires, 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 and
surefooted, and able to carry a heavy load a long way without being
tired.'
Stockdale sighed as she enumerated each particular, for it proved
how far involved in the business a woman must be who was so well
acquainted with its conditions and needs. And yet he felt more
tenderly towards her at this moment than he had felt all the
foregoing day. Perhaps it was that her experienced manner and hold
indifference stirred his admiration in spite of himself.
'Take my arm, Lizzy,' he murmured.
'I don't want it,' she said. 'Besides, we may never be to each
other again 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 little
hesitation as if it had been day, avoiding the cart-way, and leaving
the village of East Chaldon on the left, so as to reach the crest of
the hill at a lonely trackless place not far from the ancient
earthwork called Round Pound. An hour's brisk walking brought them
within sound of the sea, not many hundred yards from Lulstead Cove.
Here they paused, and Lizzy and Stockdale came up with them, when
they went on together to the verge of the cliff. One of the men now
produced an iron bar, which he drove firmly into the soil a yard
from the edge, and attached to it a rope that he had uncoiled from
his body. They all began to descend, partly stepping, partly
sliding down the incline, as the rope slipped through 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
next thing audible to the two at the top was the dip of heavy oars,
and the dashing of waves against a boat's bow. In a moment the keel
gently touched the shingle, and Stockdale heard the footsteps of the
thirty-six carriers 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, or even their waists, dry from the brine: but it was
impossible to see what they were doing, and in a few minutes the
shingle was trampled again. The iron bar sustaining the rope, on
which Stockdale's hand rested, began to swerve a little, and the
carriers one by one appeared climbing up the sloping cliff; dripping
audibly as they came, and sustaining themselves by the guide-rope.
Each man on reaching the top was seen to be carrying a pair of tubs,
one on his back and one on his chest, the two being slung together
by cords passing round the chine hoops, and resting on the carrier's
shoulders. Some of the stronger men carried three by putting an
extra one on the top behind, but the customary load was a pair,
these being quite weighty enough to give their bearer the sensation
of having chest 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
shore till we be safe off.' Then, without waiting for the rest, the
foremost men plunged across the down; and, when the last had
ascended, Lizzy pulled up the rope, wound it round her arm, wriggled
the bar from the sod, 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.
'But I'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
towards the downs; and the moan of the sea was heard no more.
'Is this what you meant the other day when you spoke of having
business with 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
and pursuits were so akin as Lizzy's and Owlett's, and where risks
were shared, as with them, in every undertaking, there would be a
peculiar appropriateness in her answering Owlett's standing question
on matrimony in the affirmative. This did not soothe Stockdale, its
tendency being rather to stimulate in him an effort to make the pair
as inappropriate as possible, and win her away from this nocturnal
crew to correctness of conduct and a minister's parlour in some far-
removed inland county.
They had been walking near enough to the file of carriers for
Stockdale to perceive that, when they got into the road to the
village, they split up into two companies of unequal size, each of
which made off in a direction of its own. One company, the smaller
of the two, went towards the church, and by the time that Lizzy and
Stockdale reached their own house these men had scaled the
churchyard wall, and were proceeding noiselessly over the grass
within.
'I see that Owlett has arranged for one batch to be put in the
church again,' observed Lizzy. 'Do you remember my taking you there
the first night you came?'
'Yes, of course,' said Stockdale. 'No wonder you had permission to
broach the tubs--they were his, I suppose?'
'No, they were not--they were mine; I had permission from myself.
The day 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
time before 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,'
said Owlett. 'The place is watched. We must sling the apple-tree
in the orchet if there's time. We can't put any more under the
church lumber than I have sent on there, and my mixen hev already
more in en than is safe.'
'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 do anything had better get indoors and not be zeed.'
While Owlett thus conversed, in a tone so full of contraband anxiety
and so free from lover's jealousy, the men who followed him had been
descending one by one from the hedge; and it unfortunately happened
that when the hindmost took his leap, the cord slipped which
sustained his tubs: the result was that both the kegs fell into the
road, one of them being 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.
'It isn't that--it is the smell! It is so blazing strong before it
has been lowered by water, that it smells dreadfully when spilt in
the road like that! 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
scrape and trample over the spot, to disperse the liquor as much as
possible; and then they all entered the gate of Owlett's orchard,
which adjoined Lizzy's garden on the right. Stockdale did not care
to follow them, for several on recognizing him had looked
wonderingly at his presence, though they said nothing. Lizzy left
his side and went to the bottom of the garden, looking over the
hedge into the orchard, where the men could be dimly seen bustling
about, and apparently hiding the tubs. All was done noiselessly,
and without a light; and when it was over they dispersed in
different directions, those who had taken their cargoes to the
church having already gone off to their homes.
Lizzy returned to the garden-gate, over which Stockdale was still
abstractedly leaning. 'It is all finished: I am going indoors
now,' she said 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'
hoofs broke upon the ear, and it seemed to come from the point where
the track across 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
better go indoors.'
They entered the house, and Lizzy bolted the door. 'Please don't
get a light, Mr. Stockdale,' she said.
'Of course I will not,' said he.
'I thought you might be on the side of the king,' said Lizzy, with
faintest sarcasm.
'I am,' said Stockdale. 'But, Lizzy Newberry, I love you, and you
know it perfectly well; and you ought to know, if you do not, what I
have suffered in my conscience on your account these last few days!'
'I guess very well,' she said hurriedly. 'Yet I don't see why. Ah,
you are better than I!'
The trotting of the horses seemed to have again died away, and the
pair of listeners touched each other's fingers in the cold 'Good-
night' of those whom something seriously divided. They were on the
landing, but before they had taken three steps apart, the tramp of
the horsemen suddenly revived, almost close to the house. Lizzy
turned to the staircase window, opened the casement about an inch,
and put her face close to the aperture. 'Yes, one of 'em is
Latimer,' she whispered. 'He always rides a white horse. One would
think it was the last colour for a man 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 his horse, and said something to his companion which neither
Stockdale nor Lizzy could hear. Its drift was, however, soon made
evident, for the other man stopped also; and sharply turning the
horses' heads they cautiously retraced their steps. When they were
again opposite Mrs. Newberry's garden, Latimer dismounted, and the
man on the dark horse did the same.
Lizzy and Stockdale, intently listening and observing the
proceedings, naturally put their heads as close as possible to the
slit formed by the slightly opened casement; and thus it occurred
that at last their cheeks came positively into contact. They went
on listening, as if they did not know of the singular incident which
had happened to their faces, and the pressure of each to each rather
increased than lessened with the lapse of time.
They could hear the excisemen sniffing the air like hounds as they
paced slowly along. When they reached the spot where the tub had
burst, both stopped on the instant.
'Ay, ay, 'tis quite strong here,' said the second officer. 'Shall
we knock at the door?'
'Well, no,' said Latimer. 'Maybe this is only a trick to put us off
the scent. They wouldn't kick up this stink anywhere near their
hiding-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
wrong way. 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 they have storages about here, but we can do nothing
by this owl's light. We will look round the parish and see if
everybody is in bed, John; and if all is quiet, we will do as I
say.'
They went on, and the two inside the window could hear them passing
leisurely through the whole village, the street of which curved
round at the bottom and entered the turnpike road at another
junction. This way the 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
divert her attention from their own tender incident by the casement,
which he wished to be passed over as a thing rather dreamt of than
done. 'O, nothing,' she replied, with as much coolness as she could
command under her disappointment at his manner. 'We often have such
storms as this. You would not be frightened if you knew what fools
they are. Fancy riding o' horseback through the place: of course
they will hear and see nobody 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 to the 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
her eyes; and that not because of the alertness of the riding-
officers.
