“It’s not gravel you have there,” she said.
“It’s a curious thing,” said Joseph Antony in an offended tone, “for you to be saying the like of that and the boat up to the seats with gravel before your eyes.”
“I don’t deny there’s gravel on top,” said Priscilla, “but there’s something else underneath.”
Joseph Antony urged his boat further from the Tortoise.
“What do you mean, at all?” he said.
“I don’t know what you’ve got,” said Priscilla, “but I saw the rim of some sort of a wooden tub sticking out of the gravel in the fore part of the boat.”
Joseph Antony began to row vigorously towards the quay. Priscilla hailed him.
“Tell me this now,” she said, “Why did you take Mrs. Kinsella and the children off their island? Was it for fear of the rats?”
Joseph Antony lay on his oars.
“It was not rats,” he said. “Why would it?”