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142 SUSSEX SMUGGLERS. |
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he was safe during his confinement there, and often told Chater that he was a villain to turn informer, and he would see he should be hanged to prevent his informing any more ; and he declared, that when they took Chater from Old Mills's house, that Old Mills knew that they were going to hang him at the well by Lady Holt Park, and that the resolution and agreement of him, Old Mills, as well as the rest, was to fling his body down there, it being a dry well, to prevent a discovery, and that Old Mills himself said it was a very proper place, for as it was a dry well, it might lie there an age before anything could be discovered, and before that time it would be rotted quite away to nothing.
Before we proceed any further, we shall inform the reader what encouragement is given to seduce the young people from their honest employments to turn smugglers, which Little Harry declared.
The master smugglers contract for the goods either abroad, or with the master of a cutter that fetches them, for a quantity of teas (which they call dry goods) and brandies, and the master of the cutter fixes a time and place where he designs to land, and seldom or ever fails being pretty punctual as to the time, if the weather permits; as the master smugglers cannot fetch all the goods themselves, so they hire men whom they call their riders ; and they allow each man half-a-guinea a journey, and bear all expenses of eating and drinking and horse, and allowance of a dollop of tea, which is forty pound weight, being the half of a bag, the profit of which dollop, even of the most ordinary sort, is worth more than a guinea, and some sorts 25s. and some more; and they always make one journey, sometimes two, and sometimes three in a week, which is indeed such a temptation that very few people in the country can |
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