And she could hear the faint pleasant stroke of the paddles of the big side wheels upon the water.
At the wharf boat there had not been a sign of life.

But with the dying away of the second whistle lights--the lights of lanterns--appeared on the levee close to the water's edge and on the wharf boat itself.

And, behind her, the doors of the Sutherland Hotel opened and its office lit up, in preparation for any chance arrivals.

She turned abruptly out of the beaten path down the gravel levee, made for the lower and darker end of the wharf boat.

There would be Sutherland people going up the river.