Doll took the key of the boat-house from a little hole under the eaves.
"I think Withers must be out," he remarked at last, after knocking and calling at the locked door and peering through the closed window.

Hugh had been of that opinion for some time.

"Gone out with his wife, I expect.

Never mind, we can do without him." They went slipping over the dry beech-mast to the boat-house.

Doll unlocked the door and climbed into one of the boats; Hugh and Crack followed.