the horizontal light of the fading day. The smuggled
tubs were soon packed into the vehicles, and Latimer, with three of his
assistants, drove slowly out of the village in the direction of the port
of Budmouth, some considerable number of miles distant, the other
excisemen being left to watch for the remainder of the cargo, which they
knew to have been sunk somewhere between Ringsworth and Lulstead Cove,
and to unearth Owlett, the only person clearly implicated by the
discovery of the cave.

Women and children stood at the doors as the carts, each chalked with the
Government pitchfork, passed in the increasing twilight; and as they
stood they looked at the confiscated property with a melancholy
expression that told only too plainly the relation which they bore to the
trade.

'Well, Lizzy,' said Stockdale, when the crackle of the wheels had nearly
died away. 'This is a fit finish to your adventure. I am truly thankful
that you have got off without suspicion, and the loss only of the liquor.
Will you sit down and let me talk to you?'

'By and by,' she said. 'But I must go out now.'

'Not to that horrid shore again?' he said blankly.

'No, not there. I am only going to see the end of this day's business.'

He did not answer to this, and she moved towards the door slowly, as if
waiting for him to say something more.

'You don't offer to come with me,' she added at last. 'I suppose that's
because you hate me after all this?'

'Can you say it, Lizzy, when you know I only want to save you from such
practices? Come with you of course I will, if it is only to take care of
you. But why will you go out again?'

'Because I cannot rest indoors. Something is happening, and I must know
what. Now, come!' And they went into the dusk together.

When they reached the turnpike-road she turned to the right, and he soon
perceived that they were following the direction of the excisemen and
their load. He had given her his arm, and every now and then she
suddenly pulled it back, to signify that he was to halt a moment and
listen. They had walked rather quickly along the first quarter of a
mile, and on the second or third time of standing still she said, 'I hear
them ahead--don't you?'

'Yes,' he said; 'I hear the wheels. But what of that?'

'I only want to know if they get clear away from the neighbourhood.'

'Ah,' said he, a light breaking upon him. 'Something desperate is to be
attempted!--and now I remember th