Through Russian Snows (3 page)

"We thought that we had fooled them nicely, and that evening half a
dozen of our boats sailed into Lulworth harbour and anchored there
quiet. One of them rowed ashore and landed two hands to look round. They
brought back news as there were only two or three revenue men left at
the station, and it would be easy enough to seize them and tie them up
till it was all over. In course, everything worked for a bit just as we
thought it would. The lugger we were expecting showed her light in the
offing and was signalled that the coast was clear. It was a dark night,
and the two revenue men on duty in the cove were seized and tied up by
some of the shore band without a blow being struck. Two or three chaps
were placed at the door of the station, so that if the two men left
there turned out they would be gagged at once. Everything was ready, and
a big lot of carts came down to the water's edge. The lugger anchored
outside the cove; we got up our kedges and rowed out to her, and a dozen
shoreboats did the same. As soon as we got alongside they began to
bundle the kegs in, when not three hundred yards away came a hail, 'What
craft is that?'

"It struck us all into a heap, and you could have heard a pin drop. Then
came the hail again, 'If you don't answer I will sink you,' whereupon
the skipper of the lugger shouted out, 'the
Jennie
of Portsmouth.'
'Lend a hand, lads, with the sails,' he whispered to us; 'slip the
cable, Tom.' We ran up the sails in a jiffy, you may be sure, and all
the sharper that, as they were half-way up, four guns flashed out. One
hulled the lugger, the others flew overhead. Close as they were they
could not have seen us, for we could scarce see them and we were under
the shadow of the cliffs, but I suppose they fired at the voices. 'Sink
the tubs, lads,' the skipper said as the lugger glided away from us.
There was a nice little air blowing off shore, and she shot away into
the darkness in no time. We all rowed into the mouth of the cove for
shelter, and were only just in time, for a shower of grape splashed the
water up a few yards behind us.

"We talked it over for a minute or two, and settled that the
Boxer
would be off after the lugger and would not pay any more attention to
us. Some of them were in favour of taking the kegs that we had got
ashore, but the most of us were agin that, and the captain himself had
told us to sink them, so we rowed out of the cove again and tied sinkers
to the kegs and lowered them down three or four hundred yards west of
the mouth of the cove. We went on board our boats and the other chaps
went on shore, and you may guess we were not long in getting up our
sails and creeping out of the cove. It was half an hour after the first
shots were fired before we heard the
Boxer
at it again. I reckon that
in the darkness they could not make out whether the lugger had kept
along east or west under the cliffs, and I expect they went the wrong
way at first, and only found her at last with their night-glasses when
she was running out to sea.

"Well, next morning we heard that the shore men had not landed five
minutes when there was a rush of forty or fifty revenue men into the
village. There ain't no doubt they had only gone west to throw us off
our guard, and, as soon as it was dark, turned and went eastward. They
could not have known that the job was to come off at Lulworth, but were
on the look-out all along, and I reckon that it was the same with the
Boxer
. She must have beaten back as soon as it was dark enough for her
not to be seen from the hills, and had been crawling along on the
look-out close to the shore, when she may have caught sight of the
lugger's signal. Indeed, we heard afterwards that it called back the
coast-guard men, for they had passed Lulworth and were watching at a
spot between that and St. Alban's Head, where a cargo had been run a
month or two before, when they caught sight of the signal off Lulworth.
Well, you may guess they did not get much for their pains. The carts had
all made off as soon as they heard the
Boxer's
guns, and knew that the
game was up, for the night anyhow, and they found every light out in
Lulworth, and everyone, as it seemed, fast asleep. I believe, from what
I have heard, that there was a great row afterwards between Captain
Downes and the revenue officer ashore. The chap ashore would have it
that it was all the captain's fault for being in such a hurry, and that
if he had waited an hour they would have got all the carts with the
cargo, even if he had not caught the lugger.

"Well, that was true enough; but I don't see that Downes was to blame,
for until he came along he could not be sure where the lugger was, and
indeed she was so close in under the cliff that it is like enough he
would have missed her altogether and have gone on another two or three
miles, if it had not been that they caught the noise of the boats
alongside her taking in the kegs. The lugger got away all right; she is
a fast craft, and though the
Boxer
can walk along in a strong wind, in
a light breeze the lugger had the legs of her altogether. That shows
you, Mr. Julian, that Captain Downes has cut his eye-teeth, and that it
is mighty hard to fool him. He was never nearer making a good capture
than he was that night. The lugger ran her cargo two nights afterwards
at the very spot where the woman had told the revenue man that she was
going to do it. There was a little bit of a fight, but the coast-guard
were not strong enough to do any good, and had to make off, and before
they could bring up anything like a strong force, every bale and keg had
been carried inland, and before morning there was scarce a farmhouse
within ten miles that had not got some of it stowed away in their snug
hiding-places. Downes will be more vicious than ever after that job, and
you see, master, you are like to run a goodish risk of getting your head
broke and of being hauled off to jail. Still, if you would like to join
some night in a run we can put you in the way."

"Yes, I should like it very much," Julian said. "There can't be much
risk, for there has not been anything like a regular fight anywhere
along this part of the coast for the last two years, and from what I
have heard, there must have been twenty cargoes run in that time."

"All that, sir, all that; nigher thirty, I should say. There is three
luggers at it reg'lar."

"Are they French or English?"

"Two of them is French and one English, but the crews are all mixed.
They carry strong crews all of them, and a longish gun in their sterns,
so that in case they are chased they may have a chance of knocking away
a spar out of anything after them. They would not fight if a cutter came
up alongside them—that might make a hanging matter of it, while if none
of the revenue chaps are killed it is only a case of long imprisonment,
though the English part of the crew generally have the offer of entering
on a king's ship instead, and most of them take it. Life on board a
man-of-war may not be a pleasant one, but after all it is better than
being boxed up in a prison for years. Anyhow, that is the light in which
I should look at it myself."

"I should think so," Julian agreed. "However, you see there is no great
risk in landing the kegs, for it is very seldom you get so nearly caught
as you did at Lulworth. Let me know when the next affair is coming off,
Bill, and if it is anywhere within a moderate distance of Weymouth I
will go with you if you will take me. Anyhow, whether I go or not, you
may be quite sure that I shall keep the matter to myself."

"The most active chap about here," Bill said after he had hauled his
nets, and the boat was making her way back to Weymouth, "is that
Faulkner. He is a bitter bad one, he is. Most of the magistrates about
here don't trouble their heads about smuggling, and if they find a keg
of first class brandy quite accidental any morning on their doorstep,
they don't ask where it comes from, but just put it down into their
cellars. Sometimes information gets sworn before them, and they has to
let the revenue people know, but somehow or other, I can't say how it
is," and the fisherman gave a portentous wink, "our fellows generally
get some sort of an idea that things ain't right, and the landing don't
come off as expected; queer, ain't it? But that fellow Faulkner, he
ain't like that. He worries hisself about the smugglers just about as
much as Captain Downes does. He is just as hard on smugglers as he is on
poachers, and he is wonderful down on them, he is. Do you know him,
sir?"

"I know him by sight. He is a big, pompous man; his place is about two
miles up the valley, and there are some large woods round it."

"That is so, sir; and they say as they are chock-full of pheasants. He
has a lot of keepers, and four years ago there was a desperate fight
there. Two keepers and three poachers got shot, and two others were
caught; they were tried at the 'sizes for murder and hanged. He is a
regular bully, he is, but he ain't no coward. If he was he would never
stir out after sunset, but instead of that he is out night after night
on the cliffs, when there is any talk of a cargo being run. He is known
to carry pistols about with him, and so though his life has been
threatened many times, nothing has ever come of it. One thing is, he has
got a big black horse, about the best horse there is in this part of the
country, and he always rides mighty fast down into the town or up on to
the cliffs, where he gets among the revenue men, and in course he is
safe enough. He was down with that lot at Lulworth that night, and they
say he cussed and swore loud enough to be heard all over the village,
when they found that they had got there too late. He is a bitter bad
weed, is Faulkner."

"I know he is very unpopular even in the town," Julian said. "He is the
hardest magistrate on the bench, and if it were not for the others not a
man brought before him would ever get off. I have heard that he is very
much disliked by the other magistrates, and that some time ago, when he
wanted to join the club, they would not have him at any price. I can't
make out why a fellow should go out of his way to make himself disliked.
I can understand his being down on poachers; no one likes to be robbed,
but the smuggling cannot make any difference to him one way or the
other."

"No; that is what we says. It don't concern him, 'cept that magistrates
are bound in a sort of way to see that the law is not broken. But why
shouldn't he do like the others and go on his way quiet, unless he gets
an information laid before him, or a warning from the revenue people as
he is wanted. You mark my words, Master Julian, some night that chap
will get a bullet or a charge of shot in his body."

After this Julian went on more than one occasion with Bill and other
fishermen to look on at the landing of contraband cargoes. If the
distance was within a walk they would start from Weymouth straight
inland, and come down by the road along which the carts were to fetch
the goods up, for it was only occasionally that the fishermen would take
their boats. At Lulworth, of course, there had been no risk in their
doing so, as boats, when fishing to the east, would often make their way
into the cove and drop anchor there for a few hours. But when the run
was to be made at lonely spots, the sight of fishing boats making in to
anchor would have excited the suspicions of the coast-guard on the
cliffs. The number of fishermen who took part in the smugglers'
proceedings was but small. All of these had either brothers or other
relations on board the luggers, or were connected with some of the
smugglers' confederates on shore. They received a handsome sum for their
night's work, which was at times very hard, as the kegs had often to be
carried up steep and dangerous paths to the top of the cliffs, and then
a considerable distance across the downs to the nearest points the carts
could come to.

It was the excitement of the adventure, however, rather than the pay,
and the satisfaction derived from outwitting the revenue men, that was
the main attraction to the fishermen. Julian took no share in the work.
He went dressed in the rough clothes he wore on the fishing excursions
at night, and heartily enjoyed the animated bustle of the scene, as
scores of men carrying kegs or bales on their backs, made their way up
some narrow ravine, silently laid down their loads beside the carts and
pack-horses, and then started back again for another trip. He
occasionally lent a hand to lash the kegs on either side of the horses,
or to lift a bale into the cart. No one ever asked any question; it was
assumed that he was there with one of the carts, and he recognized the
wisdom of Bill's advice the first time he went out.

"It is best not to speak till you are spoken to, Master Julian; there is
more chaps there besides yourself, as are thought to be sound asleep in
their beds at Weymouth, and it is just as well to keep yourself to
yourself. There is never no knowing when things may go wrong, and then
it is as likely as not that some one may peach, and the fewer names as
comes out the better. Now you mind, sir, if there is an alarm, and the
revenue chaps come down on us, you just make a bolt at once. It ain't no
business of yours, one way or the other. You ain't there to make money
or to get hold of cheap brandy; you just go to look on and amuse
yourself, and all you have got to do is to make off as hard as you can
go directly there is an alarm. Everyone else does the same as gets a
chance, I can tell you. The country people never fight; though the
smugglers, if they are cornered, and can't get back to the lugger
without it, will use their weapons if they see a chance; but you have
got nothing to do with that. Don't you wait a minute for me and my
mates, for we shall bolt too. If we were on the shore when they came on
us we should embark with the crew and get on board the lugger. In
course, if just a few of the revenue men were fools enough to come on
us, they would be tumbled over in double quick time, and tied up till
the goods were all taken inland, and be left till some of their mates
found them in the morning.