The night was not so dark but that, besides the lights at bows and mastheads gliding to and fro, they could discern some shadowy bulk attached; and now and then a ghostly lighter with a large dark sail, like a warning arm, would start up very near them, pass on, and vanish.

At this time of their watch, the water close to them would be often agitated by some impulsion given it from a distance.

Often they believed this beat and plash to be the boat they lay in wait for, running in ashore; and again and again they would have started up, but for the immobility with which the informer, well used to the river, kept quiet in his place.
The wind carried away the striking of the great multitude of city church clocks, for those lay to leeward of them; but there were bells to windward that told them of its being One--Two--Three.

Without that aid they would have known how the night wore, by the falling of the tide, recorded in the appearance of an ever-widening black wet strip of shore, and the emergence of the paved causeway from the river, foot by foot.
As the time so passed, this slinking business became a more and more precarious one.

It would seem as if the man had had some intimation of what was in hand against him, or had taken fright?
His movements might have been planned to gain for him, in getting beyond their reach, twelve hours' advantage?
The honest man who had expended the sweat of his brow became uneasy, and began to complain with bitterness of the proneness of mankind to cheat him--him invested with the dignity of Labour! Their retreat was so chosen that while they could watch the river, they could watch the house.