ten o'clock in the
morning
Under the old Collectorship of Captain Maull , it was no unusual thing for a barraco of superfine Hollands , a bolt of silk cloth , or a keg of brandy to find its way into the house of some influential merchant or Colonial dignitary . But in no such manner was Lieutenant Goodhouse derelict in his duties . He would have sacrificed his dearest friendship or his most precious attachment rather than fail in his duties to the Crown . In the intermission of his duties it might please him to relax into the softer humors of conviviality , but at ten o'clock in the morning , whatever his condition of sobriety , he assumed at once all the sterner panoply of a Collector of the Royal Customs . Thus he set his virtues against his vices , and struck an even balance between them . When most unsteady upon his legs he most asserted his integrity , declaring that not a gill or a thread came into his port without paying its duty , and calling Heaven to witness that it had been his hand that had saved the life of a noble young gentleman . Thereupon , perhaps , drawing forth the gleaming token of his prowess -- the gold snuffbox -- from his breeches-pocket , and holding it tight in his brown and hairy fist , he would first offer his interlocutor a pinch of rappee , and would then call upon him to read the inscription engraved upon the lid of the case , demanding to know whether it mattered a fig if a man did drink a drop too much now and then , provided he collected every farthing of the royal revenues , and had been the means of saving the son of the Earl of Clandennie .