The dike lay deep between its banks and was not more than twenty feet in width, so that the air did not ruffle it; moreover, as any observer of nature will have noticed, the surface of still water is never quite dark, even on much blacker nights than this.
Why had Otter taken off his clothes, Leonard wondered?
Evidently that he might go into the water.

And what could he want to go into the water for, unless it was that his heart failed him and, as Soa suggested, he had deserted.

But this was impossible, for he knew well that the dwarf would die first.

In his great perplexity Leonard stared at the dike.
Now he could see that on its further side rose a flight of wooden steps, protected at the top by gates and that a man was seated on the lowest step, with a rifle beside him, his feet hanging down to within a few inches of the surface of the dike.

It must be the sentry.
Next instant Leonard saw something else.