TRESENCE OF MIND. 259 



full upon the doomed tubs. How to effect their per- 

 sonal escape was now the object of the smugglers. 

 The sun was up, and a smoothish sea around them, 

 but, fortunately, a few dark scuds occasionally swept 

 the wave. It would be some little time before the 

 preventive boat put off; the signal was up for it and 

 all haste making, and there stood the blue-jacket, glass 

 to eye, watching the men on the raft. Hooper's wits 

 did not desert him even in this strait, and he told his 

 companion, also a strong swimmer, to do just as he 

 did. At intervals they then lay down and concealed 

 themselves among the tubs, and then arose and 

 showed themselves again, each time lying down longer 

 than before, till they had accustomed the preventive 

 eye to lose them, and, after a lapse of time, again to 

 make them out. This they did several times, till at 

 last Hooper gave the word, instead of to lie down 

 again, to slip off into the water and swim in different 

 directions to the shore. The ruse answered. The 

 preventive man, accustomed to miss them among the 

 tubs, took no notice of their disappearance, neglect- 

 ing to sweep the sea, simply covering the tubs, and 

 expecting their reappearance. When the preventive 

 boat reached the rafts, the men had escaped. 



Hooper was one of the gamekeepers whom I called 

 as a witness to contravene Mr. Bright's attempt to 

 get up a case for the abolition of the game laws, and, 

 as a necessary consequence, to substitute in their 

 place a stringent trespass act a thousand times more 

 tyrannical, and possessed of greater power over the 

 liberties of the subject, than the present code. Mr. 

 Bright, as the leader on one side, and myself, as the 

 leader on the other, were obliged each to give three 

 days' notice of the appearance of the respective 



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