about two o’clock
It was with the greatest difficulty they could get her down to the beach , where presently my brother succeeded in attracting the attention of some men on a paddle steamer from the Thames . They sent a boat and drove a bargain for thirty-six pounds for the three . The steamer was going , these men said , to Ostend . It was about two o'clock when my brother , having paid their fares at the gangway , found himself safely aboard the steamboat with his charges . There was food aboard , albeit at exorbitant prices , and the three of them contrived to eat a meal on one of the seats forward . There were already a couple of score of passengers aboard , some of whom had expended their last money in securing a passage , but the captain lay off the Blackwater until five in the afternoon , picking up passengers until the seated decks were even dangerously crowded . He would probably have remained longer had it not been for the sound of guns that began about that hour in the south .