Whatever his object in all this, he does not reveal it to his companion. The time has not come for taking the waterman into full confidence. It will, but not to-night.
He has again relapsed into silence, which continues till he catches sight of an object on the left bank, conspicuous against the sky, beside the moon’s disc, now low. It is a cross surmounting a structure of ecclesiastical character, which he knows to be the Roman Catholic chapel at Rugg’s. Soon as abreast of it he commands—
“Hold way, Jack! Keep her steady awhile!”
The waterman obeys without questioning why this new stoppage. He is himself interrogated the instant after—thus:—
“You see that shadowed spot under the bank—by the wall?”
“I do, Captain.”
“Is there any landing-place there for a boat?”
“None, as I know of. Course a boat may put in anywhere, if the bank beant eyther a cliff or a quagmire. The reg’lar landin’ place be above—where the ferry punt lays.”
“But have you ever known of a boat being moored in there?”
The question has reference to the place first spoken of.