two o'clock
`` I 'm sorry if I startled you , '' he began , `` but I hailed you just now , and you told me to come . -- I concluded you meant what you said . Not , I 'm afraid , that your giving your permission or withholding it would have made much difference in the upshot . Timothy Proud let on , in my hearing , that he set you across the river soon after two o'clock , and that there 'd been no call for the ferry since . So I took one of my own boats and just came over to look for you -- in case you might have met with some mishap or strayed among the sand-hills and could n't find your '' -- Thus far he spoke with studied calm and restraint . But here , as though struck by a fresh and very objectionable idea , he broke out : `` Nothing has happened has it ? No cowardly brute has interfered with you or upset you ?