two o'clock
It was a Russian invasion . There had just anchored in the harbor a transatlantic liner that was bearing this cargo of human flesh to America . They scattered throughout the place ; they crowded the cafés and the shops , and under their invading wave they blotted out the normal population of Gibraltar . At two o'clock it had resumed its regular aspect and there reappeared the helmets of the police , the sailors ' caps , the turbans of the Moors , the Jews and the Christians . The liner was already at sea after having taken on its supply of coal ; and thus , in the course of a single day , there succeeded one another the rapid and uproarious invasions of all the races of the continent , in this city that might be called the gateway of Europe , by the inevitable passage through which one part of the world communicates with the Orient and the other with the Occident . As the sun disappeared , the flash of a discharge gleamed from the top of the mountain , and the boom of the sunset gun warned strangers without a residence permit that it was time to leave the city . The evening patrol paraded through the streets , with its military music of fifes and drums grouped about the beloved national instrument of the English , the bass drum , which was being pounded with both hands by a perspiring athlete , whose rolled-up sleeves revealed powerful biceps .