It was the same tale all the way through where poor Saul was concerned. Impenitent, rebellious, cursing his own fate and crippled condition, and cursing yet more bitterly those he held responsible for the accident--the tyrants who set soldiers upon poor and harmless people, to trample them to death beneath their iron heel for no other offence than claiming the rights of human beings and citizens of the commonwealth. He refused all visits save those from such men of his own fashion of thinking as came to condole with him, and to fan the flame of his bitterness and wrath. Abner soon ceased to try and reason with him. He wrestled ceaselessly in prayer for him, as indeed did many of his neighbours, who were wont to meet together at intervals for the reading the Scripture, and that prayer for the speedy coming of the Lord, which had become one of the leading features of the faith of the little community of St. Bride. It was indeed all that could be done for the unhappy young man; and so soon as he was able to get about on crutches, he announced his intention of going back to Mother Clat’s, and resuming his old life with the fishermen. There was indeed one very good reason why he should do this. In a boat his lameness would matter comparatively little. He could manage sheet and tiller whilst he sat quietly in the stern; and although there would be moments when he would feel somewhat keenly the loss of his foot and his crippled condition, yet this would be not nearly the same hindrance to him on the water as it would be on land. A collection had been made for him in the town by a number of those who regarded him as a victim and a martyr. This amounted to a sum sufficient to enable him to purchase a little cutter of his own, that happened to be going cheap at a neighbouring seaport town. Saul’s mates having heard of it, went to look at it, and finally negotiated the purchase, which made him the proud possessor of this fast-sailing cutter, which was significantly said to be far faster and more responsive to wind and tide than any of the Customs boats in these parts. And now a new life began for Saul. He had always done some smuggling along the coast with his friends the fishermen; but now it became a regular trade with him. Fishing was the merest excuse for the more serious occupation of his life; and as his health and strength returned with this free life on the sea, so did his ferocious hatred to all restraints of law and order grow and increase in him. He delighted in his illicit traffic far more because he was a breaker of the law than because it brought him large gains. He began to be a notable man along the coast; appearing now at this place, now at the other; landing his goods with a skill and daring that made him the idol of the fisher-folk all around, and the terror of the custom-house officers, who tried in vain to catch him, and began to think he must bear a charmed life, so absolutely impossible did they find it to get sight of him.