about
4 a.m.
This would give an opportunity for an inquest ; and , in fact , the coroner was to arrive that afternoon from Penzance with an interpreter for the evidence of the strange sailor , who , it seemed , was a Greek . Little enough had been got from him , but he seemed to imply that the vessel had struck upon Dead Man 's Rock from the south-west , breaking her back upon its sunken base , and then slipping out and subsiding in the deep water . It must have happened at high tide , for much coffee and basket-work was found upon high-water line . This fixed the time of the disaster at about 4 a.m. , and my mother 's eyes met mine , as we both remembered that it was about that hour when we heard the wild despairing cry . For the rest , it was hopeless to seek information from the Greek sailor without an interpreter ; nor were there any clothes or identifying marks on the child 's body . The stranger had been clothed and fed at the Vicarage , and would give his evidence that afternoon . Hitherto , the name of the vessel was unknown .