Below decks, the engineer and his assistants were seeing that the machinery was in perfect order.

Men in the streets were posted to give Gordon warning of any danger.
In the river a tug was watching for a possible police boat.

On the wharf the only footfalls were those of Gordon himself and an assistant from the Junta.

It was dreary waiting, and Constance drew her coat more closely around her, as she shivered in the night wind and tried to brace herself against the unexpected.
At last the welcome muffled rumble of heavily laden carts disturbed the midnight silence of the street leading to the river.
At once a score of men sprang from the hold of the ship, as if by magic.

One by one the cases were loaded.