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‘The consequences,’ she said quietly, ‘are simply that I shall lose ’em. As I have none in the house or garden, they can’t touch me personally.’

‘But you have some in the orchard?’

‘Owlett rents that of me, and he lends it to others. So it will be hard to say who put any tubs there if they should be found.’

There was never such a tremendous sniffing known as that which took place in Nether-Moynton parish and its vicinity this day. All was done methodically, and mostly on hands and knees. At different hours of the day they had different plans. From daybreak to breakfast-time the officers used their sense of smell in a direct and straightforward manner only, pausing nowhere but at such places as the tubs might be supposed to be secreted in at that very moment, pending their removal on the following night. Among the places tested and examined were

 

 Hollow trees    Cupboards     Culverts
 

 Potato-graves    Clock-cases    Hedgerows
 

 Fuel-houses     Chimney-flues   Faggot-ricks
 

 Bedrooms      Rainwater-butts  Haystacks
 

 Apple-lofts     Pigsties     Coppers and ovens.
 

 

After breakfast they recommenced with renewed vigour, taking a new line; that is to say, directing their attention to clothes that might be supposed to have come in contact with the tubs in their removal from the shore, such garments being usually tainted with the spirit, owing to its oozing between the staves. They now sniffed at –

 

 Smock-frocks         Smiths' and shoemakers' aprons
 

 Old shirts and waistcoats  Knee-naps and hedging-gloves
 

 Coats and hats        Tarpaulins
 

 Breeches and leggings    Market-cloaks
 

 Women's shawls and gowns   Scarecrows
 

 

And as soon as the mid-day meal was over, they pushed their search into places where the spirits might have been thrown away in alarm:-

 

 Horse-ponds    Mixens     Sinks in yards
 

 Stable-drains   Wet ditches  Road-scrapings, and
 

 Cinder-heaps   Cesspools   Back-door gutters.
 

 

But still these indefatigable excisemen discovered nothing more than the original tell-tale smell in the road opposite Lizzy’s house, which even yet had not passed off.

‘I’ll tell ye what it is, men,’ said Latimer, about three o’clock in the afternoon, ‘we must begin over again. Find them tubs I will.’

The men, who had been hired for the day, looked at their hands and knees, muddy with creeping on all fours so frequently, and rubbed their noses, as if they had almost had enough of it; for the quantity of bad air which had passed into each one’s nostril had rendered it nearly as insensible as a flue. However, after a moment’s hesitation, they prepared to start anew, except three, whose power of smell had quite succumbed under the excessive wear and tear of the day.

By this time not a male villager was to be seen in the parish. Owlett was not at his mill, the farmers were not in their fields, the parson was not in his garden, the smith had left his forge, and the wheelwright’s shop was silent.