A Crowd Gathers

Now the missus has come up on deck to see what’s going on. From the back of her head, she looks quite young. Certainly fit and agile enough to be able to hop off the boat onto the banks to start winching open the locks. She might be young enough to be the daughter of the coxswain. She doesn’t look like she’s dressed for the cold weather though. Perhaps it’s the smoke that ha driven her out of the cabin. I wonder if anyone else will follow her. There won’t be room for anyone else unless someone mounts the roof. Maybe the coxswain will give a loud tap on the roof and the curtains will part to allow another set of eyes to view. Anything for a bit of entertainment. They might even have something to lob at us like rotten eggs or dirty sponges, though they haven’t exactly got the perfect getaway vehicle.