He said "Good evening," and proceeded to read the warrant; then went and opened the trap-door to look for the still.
"What are you looking for?" asked the manager, "can I do anything for you?"
"Yes; get me some tea, please!" he replied.
"Very good," said the manager, "you had better stop here to-night; you must be tired after such a long ride in the heat. When did you leave the Settlement?"
"Not soon enough to catch you," came the reply.
"Catch me?" asked the manager. "Why, you surprise me. What have I done?"
"You're very green," answered the constable; "but I'll have you yet."
The constable searched all the next day, but found no trace of the still, so the long journey was for nothing. The fact was, this still belonged to the aristocracy, who could do almost as they pleased, but it was nearly a case when the "broad arrow" was put on a vessel in Sydney harbour on her arrival from the Settlement with some casks of grog aboard, and also the time that a great quantity of grog was let loose in Port Macquarie harbour one morning about breakfast-time. This was hushed up somehow, for there was not another word said about it.
After this useless search, the constable offered a reward of £20 to any man who would go and stop for a while at the places where this sly grog was sold, but he couldn't get anybody to go, so he never caught them.
Many a wool-grower lost his sheep through the sly grog-sellers. The liquor was made at —— ——, by —— ——, and publicly sold on the New England road, without a license. But as it came from ——, there was no notice taken of it by those whose business it was to remedy such evils.