About this story
Her brother Charley wants her off the river for good, but she stays through the recovery of a drowned man and the ugly bargain her father strikes with his own conscience over a corpse's pockets. A rival boatman, Rogue Riderhood, trails them with insinuations, and at the landing a police inspector opens a sealed paper naming the dead man John Harmon.
How it opens
Autumn evening closed over the Thames between iron Southwark Bridge and the stone arches below it.
Your father's battered boat carried a rusty hook, a coil of rope, and no honest sign of ordinary trade.
The tide is turning, Lizzie; let him search without you tonight.
Gaffer HexamShe rows straighter than any waterman who charges by the hour.
Choose
Father will go whether I row or not, and I would rather be beside him.
Study while there is light; one of us should find a road off the river.