er-tight casks. The rest consisted of
spirits in casks, two of which a man could carry on his shoulders. The
casks were now secured together by ropes in separate parcels, eighteen
or two dozen in each, and lowered overboard. The cutter's two boats
then took them in tow, and approached the beach. As they drew near, a
small light, shown for an instant, warned them that the preventive men
were on the alert. A weight sufficient to moor each parcel was on this
dropped overboard, and the boats hung on to them.

"We must try the old dodge," said Hanson, after waiting for some time.
"I'll take three parcels--Tom and Bill, you take the rest; we've never
missed that way."

Saying this, he threw off his outer clothing, the two men he spoke to
did the same, and all three slipping overboard, took hold of the
tow-lines attached to the casks. The boats returned to the cutter, and
were hoisted on board; after which, letting draw her fore-sheet, she
stood out at sea. Hanson and his daring companions, buoyed up with a
few corks under their arms, and knives in their hands to cut the casks
from the moorings, remained with their heads just above the water,
watching for the signal to tow them in. There they remained, their
eager eyes turned towards the cliff--the dark sky above them, the
foaming waters around. Every instant their position became more
perilous; for as the tide rose, the ledge of rocks to the westward no
longer afforded them the protection it had done at first, and the seas
came rolling in, and the surf broke more and more heavily every instant.

Could they pray for help? No. They knew well that they were engaged in
unlawful work--that they were breaking the laws of their country--
refusing to render to Caesar the things that were Caesar's. Such was
the picture the poor wife beheld in her mind's eye, as she gazed down
into the dark waters, where she well knew that her husband then was.

Slowly the anxious hour passed away. The preventive men, however, still
seemed suspicious that all was not right, and lingered at their posts.
They at last hailed each other, and held a conversation in a low tone.
They were close to where two of the men lay hid. Susan, in addition to
her other cause of alarm, dreaded that an act of violence would be
committed, if they did not move off. The preventive men would fire
their pistols, certainly; but there still might be time for the tubs to
be landed, and the smugglers to make thei