"The smell of it was enough for me," said Uncle Bill; "but I tasted, like the rest. It went down 'ansum, sure nuff. And some of us tasted again, to make sure for sartin."
Says the coastguard officer, "What is it, my men?"
"Cognac."
"So say you all?"
"One and all, for sure."
"Then I seize the cask, in the Queen's name."
He took out a bit of chalk, and marked the broad arrow upon it; but our jugs were empty. The best of the game was to come.
"Now, my men, tell me, as good men and true, whether the brandy has been touched with salt water."
So we all tasted again, and said it was sickly, and brackish, and made such faces that you might think we were poisoned.