ds round it."

"That is so, sir; and they say as they are chock-full of pheasants. He
has a lot of keepers, and four years ago there was a desperate fight
there. Two keepers and three poachers got shot, and two others were
caught; they were tried at the 'sizes for murder and hanged. He is a
regular bully, he is, but he ain't no coward. If he was he would never
stir out after sunset, but instead of that he is out night after night
on the cliffs, when there is any talk of a cargo being run. He is known
to carry pistols about with him, and so though his life has been
threatened many times, nothing has ever come of it. One thing is, he has
got a big black horse, about the best horse there is in this part of the
country, and he always rides mighty fast down into the town or up on to
the cliffs, where he gets among the revenue men, and in course he is
safe enough. He was down with that lot at Lulworth that night, and they
say he cussed and swore loud enough to be heard all over the village,
when they found that they had got there too late. He is a bitter bad
weed, is Faulkner."

"I know he is very unpopular even in the town," Julian said. "He is the
hardest magistrate on the bench, and if it were not for the others not a
man brought before him would ever get off. I have heard that he is very
much disliked by the other magistrates, and that some time ago, when he
wanted to join the club, they would not have him at any price. I can't
make out why a fellow should go out of his way to make himself disliked.
I can understand his being down on poachers; no one likes to be robbed,
but the smuggling cannot make any difference to him one way or the
other."

"No; that is what we says. It don't concern him, 'cept that magistrates
are bound in a sort of way to see that the law is not broken. But why
shouldn't he do like the others and go on his way quiet, unless he gets
an information laid before him, or a warning from the revenue people as
he is wanted. You mark my words, Master Julian, some night that chap
will get a bullet or a charge of shot in his body."

After this Julian went on more than one occasion with Bill and other
fishermen to look on at the landing of contraband cargoes. If the
distance was within a walk they would start from Weymouth straight
inland, and come down by the road along which the carts were to fetch
the goods up, for it was only occasionally that the fishermen would take
their boats. At Lulworth, of course