had caught them in his trawl, whereupon
the preventive man examined the net and found it damp but certainly
not wet, as it would have been had Palmer's version been the truth.
Furthermore, if these tubs had been caught in the trawl there would
have been a number of holes torn, but Grubb found there to be no
holes. There were no fewer than forty-eight of these tubs found on the
_Daisy_--all half-ankers, and fitted with slings ready for
landing--and inasmuch as it was clear that the net had not been lately
used Palmer was obviously lying. The iron which, had it been dragged
along the sea-bed, would have been polished bright with the sand, was
actually not bright but rusty, thus proving that it had not been
recently used.

Grubb therefore felt justified in arresting the yawl, and taking her
and her tubs to the Custom House. Later on he made a thorough search
of her, and found a creeping-iron which had five prongs and a long
shank. The reader is well aware that such an implement was used by the
smugglers but never found on board a genuine fishing-craft. For
getting up sunken tubs it was essential, and for that purpose it was
evidently on board the _Daisy_. Moreover, it was found to be both wet
and polished bright as to its prongs, and there was still some wet mud
sticking thereto.

The case, of course, duly came on to be tried, and the
Attorney-General suggested that at that time, in nine cases out of
every ten, the tubs of smuggled spirits were not brought directly to
port but sunk at different places in the sea, located by landmarks and
buoys, fishing-boats being sent out later on to get them by these
creepers, and to bring them in by small quantities as opportunity
permitted. Palmer's defence was that they had found the tubs just
outside Harwich harbour, opposite to Landguard Fort, at about seven
o'clock the previous evening. But it was a somewhat strange fact that
though this fishing-vessel should have been out all night not a single
fish was found on board. And when Palmer was asked how it was that if
he had found these tubs, and had intended to hand them over to the
Customs authorities, he had been so careful to stow them all below and
not leave them on deck to be visible to the _Griper_ and _Badger_ as
he passed? His reply, that he had put the tubs below lest a puff of
wind might blow them overboard, somehow did not convince the judge,
and the verdict went against him.

A curious instance of an abuse of office wa