at with
the fishermen. Once or twice a week he would be absent all night, going
out, as he told his aunt, for a night's fishing, and generally returning
in the morning with half a dozen mackerel or other fish as his share of
the night's work.

Sometimes he would ask Frank to accompany him, and the latter, when he
had no particular work on hand, would do so, and thoroughly enjoyed the
sport.

Smuggling was at the time carried on extensively, and nowhere more
actively than between Weymouth and Exmouth on the one hand, and Swanage
on the other. Consequently, in spite of the vigilance of the revenue
men, cargoes were frequently run. The long projection of Chesil Beach
and Portland afforded a great advantage to the smugglers; and Lieutenant
Downes, who commanded the revenue cutter _Boxer_, had been heard to
declare that he would gladly subscribe a year's pay if a channel could
be cut through the beach. Even when he obtained information that a cargo
was likely to be run to the west, unless the winds and tides were alike
propitious, it took so long a time to get round Portland Bill that he
was certain to arrive too late to interfere with the landing, while, at
times, an adverse wind and the terrors of the "race" with its tremendous
current and angry waves would keep the _Boxer_ lying for days to the
west of the Island, returning to Weymouth only to hear that during her
absence a lugger had landed her cargo somewhere to the east.

"Job himself would have lost his temper if he had been a revenue officer
at Weymouth," Lieutenant Downes would exclaim angrily. "Why, sir, I
would rather lie for three months off the mouth of an African river
looking for slavers, than be stationed at Weymouth in search of
smuggling craft, for a month; it is enough to wear a man to a
thread-paper. Half the coast population seem to me to be in alliance
with these rascals, and I am so accustomed to false information now,
that as a rule when one of my men gets a hint that a cargo is going to
be run near Swanage I start at once for the west, knowing well enough
that wherever the affair is to come off it certainly will not be within
ten miles of the point named. Even in Weymouth itself the sympathy of
the population lies rather with the smugglers than the revenue men."

The long war with France had rendered brandy, French wines, lace, and
silks fabulously dear, and the heavy duties charged reduced to a
minimum the legitimate traffic that might otherwise