The COURAGEOUS EXPLOITS OF DOCTOR SYN - Thorndike Russell - Страница 44

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many difficulties upon a fighting ship I very soon did appreciate.”

“I am not boasting that I could make a cask, for I could not, because, unlike you, I have not the advantage of five

years’ concentration upon it. But I know as much as you do about the job in theory. Perhaps a little more. Can you,

for instance, tell me anything of the history of cooperage?”

Glad enough to talk of anything that did not necessitate telling tales, the cooper answered cheerfully: “Yes, sir,

as little. It wan an honoured calling in the City of London as far back as the thirteenth century, and according to old

Acts of Parliament, coopers were called ‘good men of the mystery of coopers’, and in the fifteenth century every

cooper had to have his own mark, same as the stonemasons did.”

The Captain nodded. “And that raises an important point. It is the custom still to put your mark upon a cask you

make. Now suppose the tub, barrel, keg or cask is designed for some illegal work, such as smuggling, is the mark

still put upon it by the good man cooper?”

“Well, sir,” replied the cooper, becoming uneasy again, “if I make a cask I put my mark upon it in the ordinary

way, and, at our shop, the head master-cooper puts his too, which shows that it has been passed with tests as the best

our shop can turn out.”

“I see,” nodded the Captain. “And suppose I find tubs containing smuggled goods with your mark upon them,

can I discover from any cooper that you were the maker? For I should wish to question you.”

“Most likely, sir, since all our marks are registered in the trade,” replied the cooper, wondering where the Captain

was leading him. “No doubt, sir,’ he added, “if you were to find smuggled goods in a cask I made, I could tell you

to whom that cask had been sold, and would be justified in doing so, but that would surly, sir, be the end of my

responsibility, except that it would have been guaranteed as a good cask, carrying with it an endurance test from the

shop.”

“Very well, then,” cried the Captain. “Call your mind back to my visit. You remember that I sat in your part of

the shop and watched you for some time at work, while my guide had gone to inquire about my cask? Well, now,

what did I tell you?”

“You hinted, sit,” replied the cooper with a fresh show of fear in his voice, “that if I wanted to escape the penalty

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

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