rn, at which a man
pops from behind a big rock and waves a handkerchief three times.

Well, that was according to directions, too, and I drops a dory over the
side with Sam Leary and Archie Gillis and the keg in it, and tells them
to row over to the beach, ask the name of the lad that jumped from
behind the rock, and if it was the same as on the tag to leave the keg
with him. It was about a mile to the bit of beach, and the dory was
almost there, when from behind the easterly headland comes the
revenue-cutter. "That looks bad," I says, "but we'll say we've come for
fresh water, that our tanks were leakin', and that we had to have fresh
water to cook dinner, and Sam and Archie in the dory--'specially
Sam--they'll have wit enough to empty the keg over the side and go on up
as if they was really lookin' for water."

And that's what would 'a' happened if it'd not been for the thirst that
Sam Leary and Archie Gillis most always had with them. They see the
revenue-cutter, and they knew just what they oughter done, but they
couldn't let go that keg without having one last drink out of it, and
when they got that drink down they couldn't help thinking what a pity to
waste so much good rum, and taking a look back at the cutter, and seeing
she was still half a mile away--"Time enough," says Sam to Archie--"this
lad behind the big rock'll have something to stow it in," and he and
Archie walks without any hurry up to the rock where the man was hiding.

But instead of one man behind that rock, there was six, and right away
there was a battle. Sam and Archie bowls over a couple and gets away up
the beach and safe among rocks, but the revenue people got the keg. By
that time the cutter was alongside us, and so they wouldn't get the
little Christmas keg I had tucked away for John Rose I pulled the plug
out of it in no time and let it drain into her bilge. And that was an
awful waste of good liquor, and I knew John Rose would grieve when I
told him.

They had a clean case against me, and I was taken with the _Aurora_ to
Harbor Grace for trial. When they asked me what I had to say, I told 'em
that I was simply bringing a little keg of rum from a man in Saint
Pierre to his friend in Auvergne. They asked me the name of the man in
Saint Pierre, and I said I didn't know. They asked me the name of the
man in Auvergne, and I said I didn't know. "Was this the man?" they
asks, and shows me the tag on the keg. I didn't answer. And they went on