seven o'clock
But here , although the town might have been a necropolis , so quiet was it , it had not put on a death mask . There was no mist here ; the beautiful coral houses gleamed under the moonbeams as if turned to marble , and Alexander forgot the horror of the waters and paused to note , as he had done many times before , the curious Alpine contrast of these pure white masses against the green and burnished arches of tropic trees . Then he passed through the swimming-bath to his bed , and a half-hour later slept as soundly as if the terrible forces of the Caribbean world were safe in leash . When he awoke , at seven o'clock , he heard a dull low roar in the southeast , which arrested his attention at once as a sound quite dissimilar from the boom of the reef . As he crossed Strand Street to Mr. Cruger 's store , an hour later , he noticed that a strong wind blew from the same direction and that the atmosphere was a sickly yellow . For a moment , he thought of the hurricane which he had passed his life expecting , but he had a head full of business and soon forgot both roar and wind . He was immediately immersed in a long and precise statement of his trip , writing from notes and memory , muttering to himself , utterly oblivious to the opening of the windows or the salutations of the clerks .