down and investigate.

As I still had on rubber-soled shoes, I suppose I walked
noiselessly. I had not stepped upon the woodwork before I noticed
a trap-door near the end of the wharf. I walked over to it and
looked down.

It was rather dark below, but I could make out a platform about a
foot above the water. Kneeling on this were two men, with a
lantern beside them. They were both in their shirt-sleeves, and
they seemed to be working over a little, square box. Four or five
other boxes like it were lying on the platform in front of them.

I did not know exactly how to begin, but at last I gave a kind of
cough, and said: "Can you tell me--"

But I got no farther than that. Both men looked up as if their
heads had been pulled back on wires. One of them sprang to the
ladder and came up it like a flash.

"Hullo!" he said, as soon as he reached the top; "who are you, and
what do you want?"

He was a small man, with a clean-shaven face,--a very pale face it
was, too. His hat was off, and I noticed that his hair was rather
short. As for his age, I could not have told about that,--it might
have been twenty-five or fifty, or any age between. He was quick
in his movements, but his manner of speaking was pleasant enough.

"I'm looking for a boat," I said; "someone told me that it was