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so innocent as it had been last year. “He means Crites,” she added in a confidential tone, then bounced away. She knew the whole, the minx. And what a crafty helper she was at seven years, knew enough to come to me with her message when I was well away from Miss Aldridge. I shook my head ruefully.
    The party was a great success. I wore an old pair of Andrew’s dark trousers, his jacket and boots, with my curls stuffed up under his hat. I could have swum in his clothing. I rode Babe down the road in the direction of the cove. Exhilaration kept me from being frightened. Jem was waiting for me just at the edge of the village. He handed me a mask and donned one himself.
    “Just in case,” he explained briefly.
    I put on my disguise.
    “You’d best tether your nag to a tree,” he suggested. “You never take a white animal poaching or smuggling, miss. And if you’re wise, you don’t take one that’s known to the whole village either.”
    “What about Lady?” I queried, for his dog was at his heels.
    “Oh, she’s wearing her disguise as well,” he answered.
    Glancing back, I had difficulty spotting her. “She has a mud bath an hour before we go, to hide her white fur,” he explained.
    “If she were ever caught, your secret would be out.”
    “My Lady wouldn’t be stopped, except by a bullet,” was his answer.
    There was a fingernail of moon hanging low in the sky; the breeze was chilly. Till we were actually at the sea’s edge, the sails of the ship could not be seen, nor did she show any lights. We stayed apart from the men, concealed in the shadows. The ship was not large; she had four-cornered sails set fore and aft.
    “Is it safe to work so openly? What of Crites?” I whispered.
    “He’s on the other side of town. We were burnt off there earlier.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “We settle always on three sites beforehand. If Crites is around, we give a signal with the torch from a spot where he can’t see us, and the lugger goes along to the next spot, letting on it don’t plan to stop at all. Crites is still at Harbour Bay. We have a few of the lads there keeping him amused by leaping about the rocks a bit.”
    “Won’t he see the lugger stop?” was my next question.
    “She won’t be pulling in tonight. The stuff is put on a smaller pair of boats—lowered overboard on the far side from the shore. Our lads know their job. Crites will be busy enough chasing them over the rocks that he’ll not see the little boats coming in. Mind we must move hasty, for he won’t be too long in tumbling to our ruse.”
    Move hastily they did. Not even a donkey to help them! Each man had two barrels slung over his shoulders, one resting on his back and one on his chest. It must have been a fearful burden, yet they moved quickly along the shore, to disappear into the night.
    “They’ll never make it all the way to the school, Jem.”
    “Nay, only beyond the roadway into the fields, where the mules are waiting. We use the cart trails; they’re more private, like.”
    We went along to the schoolhouse to watch the rest of the operation, I hiding behind the corner like a truant while Jem went forward to speak to them. How strange it looked, to see my prim classroom full of kegs of brandy, with the desks all shoved off to one side, piled on top of each other, with the chairs on top of that. I trembled to think what might happen if Crites should come in, but the lads kept him busy, I assumed, for he never came near us. Jem offered to “breach a barrel” for me to try the brew, after the men had left. “We always breach one to test her,” he informed me.
    He produced an awl and hammer, pushed up a metal hoop to make his hole in the barrel there, where it could be concealed from the purchaser. “You never want to use a gimlet, miss, for the sawdust might get in and give the show away. You take the tub betwixt your knees so, and give the heads a squeeze,” he said, doing just as he explained. The brandy flowed