HOOPER'S ADVENTURES 211 



gave up the manors he rented, Hooper then went, at my recom- 

 mendation, as head keeper to the late Sir John Guest ; he is still 

 at Canford, and I do not believe that a better or more trust- 

 worthy man exists. One more anecdote of Hooper, and then to 

 other matters. A lugger having rafted a lot of tubs, and the 

 preventive man on duty for a short space been deemed safe. 

 Hooper and another man were left on the raft ; the former, who 

 was a strong swimmer, to carry a guide-line on shore, to which 

 the heavier rope was attached, by which again the raft was to be 

 hauled in. The tubs being unshipped, and thus left afloat, the 

 lugger again stood out to sea. Either the tide had not been 

 exactly counted on, or the distance to the shore was mistaken, 

 for, on Hooper's slipping into the water and making for the 

 land, long before he attained shoal water he found himself 

 " pulled up," as sailors say, " with a round turn," and, like a fish 

 on a hook, tugging away with his teeth to no pui'pose. In 

 despair, for he knew that the moments he was now losing were 

 worth much, he had nothing left for it but to swim back to the 

 raft, and in five minutes afterwards a preventive man appeared 

 on the cliff, his glass full upon the doomed tubs. How to effect 

 their personal 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 



