Year: 1876

| toms has a watch house On each pier and
men always on the lookout, so thai il WAS
| impossible for the smallest craft to get
into the harber without being seen.
We'll. sir, the collector got an anony-
nous letter to say that the Sally, q we'll
known smuggler, was somewhere off the
coast with lot of tubs on board, and
that they would certainly be run some
where near. The coast guard were all
warned and we had double watches on
the piers, and you nay depend upon it
that We didn't go to sleep, for if we got
I those tubs it would be n jolly Christmas
box apiece. A day or two afterwards
the collector got another bit OF note,
saying the tubs would certainly be run
that night. It was a darkish night, with
q good bit OF rain very much such an
other as this, only not so squa0y. We
walked up and down the piers and star
ed out to sea, and nothing whatever did
VIC see until just after the town clock
| had struck twelve, when we distinctly
heard the beat of oars, and after few
minutes four cared boat pulled in be-
| tween the piers, and being hailed, came
up to the steps under the watch house.
One of the men told that she belonged
to the bark Ester, of Newcastle, from
Sulina, with cargo of wheat, which was
| lying away wind bound. One of their
men had got himself hurt, and they had
come ashore for doctor. They'd find
one, wouldn't they, in Bank street? Did
| he know Brinemouth He should think
SO /; had lived here years ago. They'd
better row right across the harbor to the
steps. It would be better to do 80 than
to walk around. While he had been
speaking two of our men searched every
inch of the boat, took up her flooring
boards, pricked her timbers all around
/ to see that there was no skin, searched
all the men, but with no result whatever.
A nice chatting they got all the time, I
can tell you, sir.


81 say, governor, I've got a mighty
big holler tooth, hadn't you better have
q look into it ?'' and SO on.


Well, we came to the conclusion that
she was what they said she was, and we
wished them good night and they pulled
away across the harbor, and were soon
lost to sight and hearing in the darkness.
About an hour after the boat went out
again with the doctor, for we saw anoth-
er man in the stern. Nothing more did
we see that night, and we went homo in
the morning grumbling at our ll-lucl1,
and wondering why the doctor didn t
come back.


That day young man who led fast
kind Of life came to see our collector,
with whom he was acquainted Says
he, 81 saw queer thing last night


s'What was that?" said the collector,
pairing his nails.


sWlly, [ was coming along Hill street
about a quarter to two and I saw about
forty men walking one after the other,
each with q couple of little tubs on his
| shoulders.


''The deuce, said the collector, Jump
ing up and ringing the bell. ''Send Mr.
Dawson directly" said heto the messen-
ger.


Mr.. Dawson was our tide surveyor,
who helped to rummage the boat


s'Mr. Dawson said the collector,
ssthey have run those tubs right under
your nose."


When Mr.. Dawson came to hear Mr..
Joe Chider's story he turned as white as
sheet, and was fit to drop.


Well a great hue and cry was made,
and the men were traced ever 30 far, but
it was no go. They got the tubs into
some place of safety, and neither our
men nor the coast guard ever got one of
them"


"But how on earth was it done2'' said
IL.


It came out some time afterward
through friend of mine getting ac-
Gualnted with one of the men. The
whole affair was arranged by a very clev-
er chap. He heard we and the coast
guard had been warned and were on the
lookout, SO he determined to run the
tubs right into the harbor. From the
stern of the gig of the bark Esther. of
Newcastle, which we had searched SO
| thoroughly, stout cord was fixed below
the water-mark. When the boat got to
the landing far across the harbor and out
of sight and sound of US, forty men who
had come into the town from different
directions, and at different times, came
| quietly down to the landing. The cord
| hanging from the boat stern after q time
brought up a stoutish rope, and this was
followed by stouter still. Upon this
the men hauled silently but steadily. and
the forty tubs of best French brandy,
which had been sunk just outside the
harbor, were pulled in between the piers
under our very noses, and taken away
into the country


ST wonder the police didn't see them"
said I.


"Ah, sir, there was the funny thing.
That very night by curious coincidence
the police, two in number, from inform
alton received, went off to watch house
on the outskirts of the town, which was
to have been broken into that night.
| The odd thing was there was noattempt
to break into the house at all. 1t was
! f1,npv vvo-p't II CIR