No excisemen watching on the cliffs gave more than a single glance at “Israel’s Tabernacle,” as, without the least irreverence, he had named his boat. But, using the same ports as the smugglers, he was often brought into close relations with them. They asked him for information which was freely given, as from one friend to another. They trusted him, for though often interrogated by the supervisor and riding officers, Israel could develop upon occasion an extraordinary deafness, so that the questions to which he could give a clear answer were never such as to commit any one. In exchange for this the smugglers would go aboard the Tabernacle and allow Israel to preach to them. And woe betide the irreverent on these occasions! Black Rob o’ Garlies or Roaring Imrie from Douglas-ha’ thought nothing of taking such a one by convenient parts of his clothing and dropping him overboard.
“Aye,” said Boyd, encouraged by my grandfather’s request, “Israel Kinmont has made a new man of many a hardened sinner!”
“I dare you to say so,” cried my grandmother; “only the Lord that is on High can do that.”
“But He can make use of instruments,” argued Boyd, who had learned his lesson, “and Israel Kinmont is one of them. He has showed me where to get grace.”
“Maybe,” snapped Jen, that unswerving Calvinist, “seeing is believing. Boyd Connoway may have got grace. I put no limit to the Almighty’s power. But it takes more than grace to convert a man from laziness!”
Boyd lifted his hand with a gesture so dignified that even from the good-for-nothing it commanded respect.
“’Tis from the Lord, Miss Jen, and it behoves us poor mortals noways to resist. Israel Kinmont never would smuggle, as ye know, and yet he never had any luck till the highest tide of the year brought the ‘Old Tabernacle’ up, with a cargo of sea-coal in her, half-way between Killantringan Village and the Nitwood.
“‘She’s settling, Israel,’ said his son Jacob, that’s counted soft, but can raise the tune at meeting—none like him for that.
“‘Even so,’ said Israel, ‘the will of the Lord be done!’
“‘She’s settling fast! Both my feet are wet!’ said Jacob, holding on to a rope.