nine o'clock sharp
In the gig sat J. Pinkney Hare and his sister , Mrs. Marne , blithely coming to lunch aboard with their two new friends . The yacht 's return to Hunston had been in all ways different from her going . She had slipped away like the hunted thing she was , running to cover with a hold full of fears , shying at every craft that passed , and yelled after from the shore by a stoutish young man with inimical opinions in his eye . She had steamed back , early this morning , not merely without fear , but proudly , her whistle screaming for the lime-light , her fore-truck flying , so to say , the burgee of vindication ; and the stoutish and inimical young man had come aboard for breakfast with his new employer at nine o'clock sharp . Such was the measure of the whitewashing work accomplished by three columns in Mr. Maginnis 's _ Gazette _ that morning . Of the `` news value '' of those astonishing columns , `` the author 's double '' -LRB- as the _ Gazette 's _ converted reporters felicitously dubbed him -RRB- had had abundant evidence in the many glances that followed him upon the streets of Hunston that morning . Varney 's errand in town had had to do with Tommy Orrick .