ou'll believe me another time, I
hope, when I said that I had gone down to the seaside to get some salt
water for one of my children; and I think you'll allow, your worship,
that it is salt water."

"You are an impudent rascal!" exclaimed Sir Reginald, irritated beyond
measure at the smuggler's coolness. "I shall not believe you a bit the
more. I suspect that you have played the officers a trick to draw them
away from your companions, and though you escape conviction this time,
you will be caught another, you may depend upon that; and you may expect
no leniency from me. Set the prisoner at liberty, there is no further
evidence against him."

"I hope, Sir Reginald, that I may be allowed to carry my keg of salt
water home," said the smuggler demurely. "It is my property, of which I
have been illegally deprived by the officers, and I demand to have it
given to me back."

"Let the man have the keg," said Sir Reginald in a gruff voice. "Is
there any other case before me?"

"No, your worship," replied his clerk.

And Jack Cope carried off his cask of salt water in triumph, followed by
the officers and the other persons who had entered the hall.

I had observed that Jack Cope had eyed my father and me as we were
seated with the baronet, and it struck me that he had done so with no
very pleasant expression of countenance.

"These proceedings are abominable in the extreme, Mr Cheveley,"
observed the justice to my father. "We must, as I before remarked, put
an effectual stop to them. You have a good deal of influence in your
parish, and I must trust to you to find honest men who will try and
obtain information, and give us due notice when a cargo is to be run."

"I fear the people do not look upon smuggling as you and I do, Sir
Reginald," observed my father. "The better class of my parishioners may
not probably engage in it, but the _very_ best of them would think it
dishonourable to act the part of informers. I do not believe any bribe
would induce them to do so."

"Perhaps not, but you can place the matter before them in its true
light. Show them that they are acting a patriotic part by aiding the
officers of the law in putting a stop to proceedings which are so
detrimental to the revenue of the country. If they can be made to
understand the injury which smuggling inflicts on the fair trader, they
may see it in a different light from that in which they at present
regard it. The Government requires funds t