of being pressed for service at sea, I was to call upon you here this morning, and not to let the other coopers know
my destination. I made a good enough excuse for getting the morning off, sir, and her I am.”
“And you are no doubt curious as to how you can serve His Majesty through me, eh?” asked the Captain.
The cooper nodded.
The Captain continued: “I saw you working upon what I knew was a finished barrel. You were adding to it.
You were fitting in straight staves from the top to the bottom. I thought this queer, and asked you why you were
doing it. You said you were carrying out a special order: that the peculiar fashioning of that cask had been
requisitioned, and you explained that it must be for packing something or other that did not need the bulge of a
regular tub.”
“That is so, sir, and that was all I knew of the matter,” answered the cooper.
“Well, you must see to it that you know more about it in the next few days if you want to remain ashore,” said the
Captain. “Your liberty, which I take it you value, depends upon your finding out who is to receive that tub, and if
there are to be more of them made in that odd fashion. You must also discover whether these casks or that cask are
to be sent across Channel, what is going to be put into them, and whether they a re coming back again to this coast.
You will also find out why the contents have to be packed between staves unbent, and why they have to be put into
an outwardly curved cask.”
“Your last question is obvious, sir,” replied the cooper. “The advantage of the curve outside a barrel makes it
easier for rolling.”
“True enough. A good answer,” said the Captain with a note of approval. “But I suggest to you that the space
occasioned between the outer barrel and the straight staves could carry a very considerable quantity of tightly
pressed tobacco, for instance. The customs would open the top, and under the lid see nothing but the cargo which
had been duly declared.”
“Which in this case, sir, would be ‘bones’,” explained the cooper.
“Bones?” queried the Captain.
“I don’t know why a large consignment of bones has to be shipped across the water, or that use they will put
them. A mate I work with said something about bones being useful to farmers, who have some process of crushing
them and using the powder obtained as a fertilizer for the soil. I never heard tell of that before.”
“Very good,” exclaimed the Captain. “We must then keep a weather eye open for the arrival of these bones,
which will no doubt be the cause of stringing up some farmers’ bones upon the Marsh. Farmers on the Marsh want
bones, do they? I think the crows about here will be pecking at their own bones, too. And ordered by the Sexton.
This is becoming interesting, George Lee.”
“I think, sir, that you are wronging Mr. Mipps by suspecting him,” put in the cooper. “I have known the Sexton
all my life, and a kinder man you could not wish to find upon the Marsh. You accuse him of poking his nose into
other people’s advantage. He is one of those men who is always doing things for others. If Doctor Syn should send
him on an errand to Hythe, why cannot he execute an order for a farmer friend at the same time? A farmer is a busy
man, sir, in these parts, and would value the Sexton’s help.”
“The farmers here are very busy, I can well believe,” retorted the Captain. “Especially those who work for the
Scarecrow at night. But that is beside the mark at the moment, though there will come a time, and at no great
distance, when these same farmers will be swinging as scarecrows above their own fields.”
“I hope not, sir,” replied the cooper. “I hope they are not so wicked as to serve under the Scarecrow.”
“Let us keep to the point,” ordered the Captain. “I presume that you have been preparing other casks in a similar
way, eh? One barrel of bones would not fertilize the Marshlands. Many barrels of bones would, and many barrels
could bring much tobacco in their innards,. Now, exactly how many of these casks did the Sexton order?”
“My mate and I have orders to prepare fifty in that way,” confessed the cooper.
“Fifty? You should have told me this at once,” cried the Captain eagerly. “Now we are progressing. When must
you complete this order for fifty barrels?”
“They are to be ready for a ship at Hythe to take them aboard by next Friday morning, sir. I don’t think they will
give me any more time off till then. Indeed I have to make up for this visit by working out the hours missed this
evening.”
“You mean you will not be able to visit me here again,” said the Captain. “That will be as well, in any case. One
of my men can meet you in Hythe for any further information. Far be it from me to hinder your work. The quicker
the casks are shipped the quicker they will be back again. Can you give me any further information now? I want to
know, for instance, the name of that ship that is to take the casks aboard at Hythe.”
“To be exact, sir, there are two of them,” went on the cooper. “Both smacks. One a Hythe boat named the
Plough, and the other, so I heard, the Strawberry from Deal. They are to be shipped empty to some port in France.”
“The Plough and the Strawberry, eh?” repeated the delighted Captain. “Do you know, my lad, I think you will
be winning your security ashore all right. You seem to have done the Government good service already. Believe
me, I have no wish for it to be otherwise. And the casks are to go out empty, eh? Well, I shall take no steps to
prevent their shipment, I assure you. But I shall be awaiting their return most anxiously, I assure you. What a
situation when I order them to be split open, and we take a look at those cavities! Now listen to me. You will hold
no communication with your good friend, the Sexton, until such time as the Plough and the Strawberry return with
their cargo of bones. Neither will you say a word of this matter to the Vicar here. It is a good thing that your work
will keep you from Dymchurch. You must keep your ears and eyes wide open, Master Cooper, and your mouth as
tight as a sealed keg.”
“Yes, sir,” assented the cooper. “I should not wish to come over to Dymchurch in any case.”
“Not even to see the Dymchurch lass you are hoping to marry?” asked the Captain roguishly.
“She is also working at Hythe, sir,” explained the cooper. “At the ‘Red Lion’, sir. She is in the kitchen there.”
“Very convenient, too,” replied the Captain, “and for your sake I am glad to hear it. Tell me, when will you be
going to see her, on Thursday, which is the day before the casks are taken aboard?”
“I shall call there at six in the evening, sir. If she is busy and cannot get out, which is often the case, the landlady
there lets me spend half an hour with her in the kitchen.”
“Then go into the bar at a quarter to six,” ordered the Captain, “and my Bos’n will be there. Anything further
you may have learned, which you think I should know, tell him. Also he can give you any further orders that I may
consider necessary.”
This conversation was interrupted by the return of Doctor Syn from church. If he was surprised at finding them
still there, he did not show it. But as both the Captain and the cooper stood up at his entrance, he apologized for his
disturbance. “Forgive me, Captain,” he said, “I have not come to turn you out of my study, which you are both
heartily welcome to, but I know you will not mind my changing my gown for my jacket, before leaving you again.”