The silent lock

An original fiction passage set in the nineteenth century.

Dusk had settled over the canal by the time Elias brought the narrowboat around the bend. The lock gates were closed, and no light showed at the keeper’s cottage. He called across the water, but only the echo returned. Presently, a boy on the opposite towpath shouted that the keeper had gone to fetch a carpenter. Leaving his brother with the boat, Elias climbed the wet steps and settled to wait under the stone arch of the road bridge, where he could watch the cottage door and the lock.

Identify where Elias waits for the lock-keeper.