uldered like many old sailors,
Lewis was wonderfully active, and sprang from one boat to another in
the harbour or climbed the rocks with the agility of a cat. It was
really this which, by accident, led to my making some further
discoveries with regard to the old salt. We had been out for a sail,
and Lewis, after taking leave of us, was running along the village
street to overtake some friend whom he saw in the distance.

"The old beggar can cover the ground at a good pace still," remarked
Miles.

"I saw him from my bedroom window the other night," I remarked
unthinkingly, "cutting across your field with something which looked
like a soldier's knapsack on his back. He must have a good wind."

"Soldier's knapsack!" blurted out Miles with a laugh. "More like a keg
of French brandy, with another on his chest to keep the balance."

"What?" I exclaimed.

Taken off his guard, Miles had gone a bit too far to refuse a further
explanation.

"I don't suppose it matters if I tell you," he remarked, with a glance
over his shoulder to make sure that no one else was listening. "Old
Lewis goes in a bit for what used to be known as the 'free trade,' but
what you now hear of as smuggling."

"I thought smugglers were men who owned ships and sailed across from
France with tobacco, and lace, and spirits--" I began.

"So they do," interrupted Miles; "but there are smugglers on land as
well as on sea. The men who bring the stuff across from France only do
part of the work; when it is put ashore it has to be taken inland and
sold, and often it has to be hidden away somewhere till the preventive
men are off their guard. Bless you, I know all about it, and you would
too if you'd lived as long as I have on the coast."

"And was that what he was up to the night we found him in the little
wood by the cliffs?" I asked, a light suddenly breaking in on my mind.

"Yes," answered Miles. "I saw at a glance what was afoot. You noticed
another man hiding behind a bush. I daresay there were a dozen more of
them in the copse."

"But what were they doing there?"

"Well, it would take a long time to explain it all in detail: but to
put it in a few words, what happens is something like this.
Somebody--probably old Lewis or another man--arranges with the owner of
a lugger to bring some brandy from France, the spirit being sent over
in little tubs or ankers. It is, of course, all arranged beforehand
just when and where the stuff is to b