ten o'clock in the morning
Across the white gleaming decks , as the bows swung from port to starboard and back again , following the channel , purple-black shadows slipped like oil . A languid land-wind blew fitfully down the estuary , in warm puffs dense with sickly-sweet jungle reek . The day was hot and sticky with humidity ; a haze like a wall of dust coloured the skies almost to the zenith . It was ten o'clock in the morning ; Calcutta lay a hundred miles up the river , approximately . By evenfall Amber expected to be in the city , whether he stuck by the steamer until she docked in the port , or left her at Diamond Harbour , sixty miles upstream , and finished his journey by rail . At the present moment he hardly knew which to do ; in the ordinary course of events he would have gone ashore at Diamond Harbour , thereby gaining an hour or two in the city . But within the last eighteen hours events had been diverted from their normal course ; and Amber was deeply troubled with misgivings .