But soon after this a boat in the Preventive service, commanded by a Mr. MacTavish, a midshipman, came alongside and boarded the Drencher.  The midshipman inquired what the Dutchman had had to do with the fishing-boat, and Crook answered that he had done nothing except to purchase some fish.  But this did not satisfy Mr. MacTavish, who proceeded now to examine what was on board.  Of course he found some casks of spirits, and asked Crook how they came to be there, to which Crook answered that they had been found floating in a former voyage and he had picked them up.  This looked doubtful, but it was quite probable, for often the weights of stones from sunken tubs broke adrift and the tubs floated up to the surface.  Especially was this the case after bad weather.

We can well understand the midshipman’s suspicions, and need not be surprised to learn that he felt justified in seizing the ship because of these tubs found on board.  He had the anchor broken out, the sails hoisted, and took her first into Dover, and afterwards from Dover to Ramsgate, where most of her cargo was unloaded.  But after a time she was ordered to be released and allowed to proceed to Holland, and later still her skipper brought an action against MacTavish for having been wrongfully detained for thirty days, for which demurrage he claimed four guineas a day, besides damage to her cable and other things, amounting in all to L208.

The reader will recollect that in another chapter we saw a couple of sailing craft dodging about suspiciously in West Bay, one of which began to fire signals to the other in order to warn her of the Preventive boat:  and we saw that the crew of three men in the offending craft were arrested and found guilty.  One of these men, it will be remembered, was John Bartlett, who had at one time been a boy on a Revenue cutter.  From the incident which led to his arrest in 1819 let us pass to the 14th of September 1823.  The scene is again West Bay, and the old passion is still strong in Bartlett notwithstanding his sentence.  A little to the west of Bridport (Dorset) is Seatown, and just beyond that comes Golden Cape.  On the night of the above date one of the Seatown Revenue officers about 1 A.M. noticed flashes coming from the cliff between Seatown and Golden Cape.  He proceeded to the cliff, which at high-water runs straight up out of the sea.  It was a dark night with no moon, a little breeze, and only slight surf on the shore—­ideal conditions for any craft bent on smuggling.

On the cliff the officer, named Joseph Davey, espied a man.  He hailed him, thinking it was some one else, and asked him if he were Joey Foss.  “Yes,” came back the answer, but when the officer seized him he discovered it was not Foss but the notorious John Bartlett.  Up came another Revenue man named Thomas Nines to assist Davey, but in a few minutes Bartlett gave a loud whistle, whereupon Nines looked out seaward and exclaimed, “There’s a boat.”