ssession, showed fight. One of
the preventive men was knocked down with a bludgeon, the rest drew
their cutlasses, and blood was shed on both sides. Lewis, raging like
a madman, whipped out a pistol and fired it, though fortunately without
doing any harm, and the next moment he was stretched senseless on the
shingle with a blow on the head given with the flat of a steel blade.
In the end, of course, the coastguard got the best of it. Some of the
smugglers made off when they saw the day was going against them, but
the rest were overpowered, handcuffed, and dragged off to the
watchhouse. Some of them have already been sent to jail, but Lewis has
been sent to Welmington to await trial at the assizes. He was
recognized as the leader of the party, and as the man who fired the
pistol; and to use weapons like that against the king's men is a
serious offence. Mother says she thinks he will be transported. It's
a crying shame," concluded the speaker, after a moment's pause. "What
difference can it make to the king, or to anybody else, if those men
buy and sell a few ankers of brandy? They don't injure or rob anybody,
and the men who come meddling and interfering with them deserve to be
roughly handled. I believe I should have shot at them myself if I'd
been in Lewis's place."

Knowing the peculiar views of the coast-bred boy on the subject of
defrauding the revenue, and the little likelihood of inducing him to
change them, I made no attempt to argue the matter, but stood for a
moment recalling to my mind the sight I had witnessed of the two
stooping figures crossing the field in the gray twilight of the summer
dawn.

"It's dreadful to think of his being transported to the other side of
the world," I said. "It must be sad for him to think that he may never
see Rockymouth again, where he has lived so long--ever since he was a
boy, except the time he spent away as a sailor in the navy."

"Well, it's fortunate that he didn't shoot straighter, or he would have
swung for it," remarked Miles bluntly; "though I believe some of those
fellows would as soon be hung as transported. I'm glad none of our
Coverthorne men appear to have been in it," he added. "It's a wonder
they weren't; but perhaps if any of them did lend a hand, they were
among those who escaped."

He laughed as though it were more of a prank than a crime; then picking
up the sheets of paper which had fallen from his hand, he went on
reading his letter.

B