“Please, your worship, the cargo was sprighted away before we could get hold of a single keg or bale, and all the fellows except this one made their escape. The ‘Preventive’ men had been put on a wrong scent, and gone off in a different direction, so that we were left to do as best we could, and we only captured this one prisoner with a keg on his shoulders, making off across the downs, and we brought him along with the keg as evidence against him.”
“Half a loaf is better than no bread, and I hope by the punishment he will receive to induce others now engaged in smuggling to abandon so low a pursuit. What is your name, prisoner?”
“Jack Cope, your worship,” answered the smuggler, who looked wonderfully unconcerned, and spoke without the slightest hesitation or fear.
“Well, Mr Jack Cope, what have you to say for yourself to induce me to refrain from making out a warrant to commit you to gaol?” asked the magistrate.
“Please, your worship, I don’t deny that I was captured as the constables describe with a cask on my shoulders, for I had been down to the sea to fill it with salt water to bathe one of my children whose limbs require strengthening, and I was walking quietly along when these men pounced down upon me, declaring that I had been engaged in running the cargo of the ‘Saucy Bess,’ with which I had no more to do than the babe unborn.”
“A very likely story, Master Cope. You were caught with a keg on your shoulders; it’s very evident that you were unlawfully employed in assisting to run the cargo of the vessel you spoke of, and I shall forthwith make out the order for your committal to prison.”
“Please, your worship, before you do that, I must beg you to examine the keg I was carrying, for if it contains spirits I am ready to go; but if not, I claim in justice the right to be set at liberty.”
“Have you examined the keg, men,” said the squire, “to ascertain if it contains spirits?”
“No, your worship, we would not venture to do that, seeing that t’other day when one of the coastguard broached a keg to see whether it had brandy or not he got into trouble for drinking the spirits.”
“For drinking the spirits! He deserved to be,” exclaimed Sir Reginald. “However, that is not the point. Bring the keg here, and if you broach it in my presence you need have no fear of the consequences. There can be little doubt that we shall be able to convict this fellow, and send him to gaol for twelve months. I wish it to be understood that I intend by every means in my power to put a stop to the proceedings of these lawless smugglers, who have so long been carrying on this illegal traffic with impunity in this part of the country.”