The record-union., 1893-06-03
WITH THE SMUGGLERN.
CHAPTER 1.

cleverest bee-keepers in the province of
Luxembourg, not to say in the village of
Vivy, where / now live. Everyone
knows that much about me, but do not
think that many know how came to
settle here, and to give up the trade of
blacksmith to which l was brought up.
have not often told the story, but 1 do
not know why l should not 1t is not
bad story in its way. and may pass away
half an hour for anyone who cares to
listen to it.
am not native of Vivy. The village
In which l was bOrn-Sugny-lie three
leagues south from here, close to the
French frontier of Belgium. 1t is
famous village in its way, though out
wardly it is a poor little place enough.
1t contains perhaps 600 souls, and the
largest house is the Auberge Regnault.
Opposite the inn is my fathers forge,
where l learnt my old trade. There was
never a press of work in our smithy;
sometimes several Gays would pass with
out the ire being lighted. We could not
possibly have lived ON my fathers earn
ings as blacksmith even when the pro-
duce OF his little plot of land on the hill
side was added. My mother, like most
OF the other women of Sugny, kept
couple of cows and carried her milk and
butter regularly over the frontier TO Sc
dan. That was not very lucrative
trade either. Her dairy profits did not
go far toward feeding and clothing me
and my i've brothers and sisters
Yet we were fed and clothed, and
though money was not plentiful l do not
remember ever 10 have been exactly in
want. The word OF the enigma is not far
to seek. Ii you had watched US children
OF Sugny playing when we came out of
school, you would soon have learnt it.
You would have seen us form two bands,
one of which would try to pass a given
line with a concealed packet, while the
others would try 10 capture them and
take their treasure. 1t was game of
which we never tired. We called it
playing at 'fraudeurs,' and 'fraudeur,"
as no doubt you know, is Just another
word for smuggler.
That was how we began, girls and boys
alike. Later on we played at the game in
earnest. The girls took to carrying milk,
and looked on the rigorous daily search
at the dOuane as mere trial of wits with
the douaniers. Sometimes little packet
oftobacco or snuff or the like was brought
To light in the hem Of dress or the
crown OF a bonnet; more often the hider
was cleverer than the seeker, and the
milk-woman added her few sous worth
of "iraude" to the hard-earned profits of
her day. With the boys, when they had
grown tall and strong, it was more
serious matter The men of Sugny are
''fraudeurs d'eliJe." They choose the
narkest night, the least trodden path
through the great borderland forest, run
the gantlet OF hundred hidden dangers
with consignments of cOntraband which
would compromise the little of those con-
cerned and then return triumphant-as
rule-in the gray dawn, to divide
the profits over glass of pecque al the
Auberge Regnault
nv the time | was fOur-aOd- tWaOtu NV
apprenticeship as 'traudeur" was over.
had taken to growing tobacco on my
own account, and reckoned myself a
match for half dozen customers. l did
not hesitate even to try and drive bar
gain, ngle-handed, with Paul Pochet,
which required more gumption than
went to the outwitting of any number of
douaniers.
Paul Pochet, the landlord of a rough
little inn on the French side of the Dor
Der, was the handiest and most depend
able man to whom we of Sugny could
dispose of our cOntraband goods. He
was, indeed, our natural ally, being the
cleverest receiver anywhere along the
frontier. More than once prohibited
goods mad been traced to his very door
more than once the Cafe Pochet had been
searched from its ill-slated roof to the
shiny corners of its damp cellar. During
The search Pochet would stand by, the
picture OF outraged innocence, protesting
Il
searchers. ct he always bat1led them,
till at last his cunning became the proverb
alike of dOuanier ana smuggler. He was,
you see, the natural ally of us men OF
Sugny, notwithstanding the. way he beat
down our profits to the lowest possible
figure. 'How can give you more?" he
would say, when we protested. Il must
make profit, too. 10 l look like a rich
man? What can man do who has so
many mouths to fill as l have?"
He had large family, 1t is true, but it
was not the bringing up of his children
that kept him poor. We all knew how
and where he squandered his ilI-gotten
gains, while Pauline, his eldest daughter,
who had kept his house since her moth
er's death, shaved from morning till
night to make half francs go as tar as
whole ones.
Pauline was not a handsome girl. She
did not resemble her Unlocking, blear-
eyed old father, but her life had been q
hard one, and her good looks had been
nipped in the bud by OVerwork, which is
no beautifier of women. She was short
and square-built, with irregular features
and a pale face. She talked little, eX-
cept to the children, and laughed still
less. However, handsome is that hand
some does, and as far as doing went, a
better girl than Pauline Pochet never
walked the earth. That is saying good
deal, but l mean IL, and am prepared to
stick by it. l do not know when l first
began to find this out. If try to reCOl-
lecI, the time seems TO go further and
further back until It seems as if it had
always been the wish of my heart to win
her for my wife. But l said nothing TO
her nor 10 anyone OF my growing love,
for l knew that my parents would look
sadly askance on the child of an evil
liver like Pochet for a daughter-in-law
Against her no one could breathe a word,
but il would have seemed to my father
and mother a shocking thing to enter into
family ties with the landlord of The Cafe
Pochet. So, though l made my visits as
frequently as possible, l never limited at
the real object of them. No doubt the
old man saw through it all, but he was
cunning, and held his peace too.
AT one time, even, he gave me good
deal of what | took to be encouragement;
then suddenly he veered round and tried
as far as possible, to put obstacles in the
way OF my silent wooing.
knew the reason of the change we'll
enough, tor it took place just at the time
when Leon Regnault began to be con-
stantly in the bar of the Cafe Pochet.
Leon Regnault, the son of the Sugny
inn keeper, was man far more like to
take a girls fancy than | was. He was a
head taller than l, and tar smarter look
ing, and whereas l have always been one
OF the quiet sort, he had always Joke
and a laugh ready. Moreover, his par
ents had saved money, and he would be
one day the master OF the inn, so that be
was reckoned a capital match, and al
most any father would have given him
the encouragement he got from Pochet
To what Pauline thought l had no clue.
As far as l could see, she treated Leon
with the same reserve as she treated me:
h,t then OF course, l did not see every