nine o'clock
`` Never saw a hotel I 'd swap it for , '' replied Percy , promptly . Two mornings later Budge and Percy started in the sloop for Vinalhaven after a load of herring . Jim did not accompany them , as he had decided to spend a forenoon hauling and inspecting the lobster-traps . The _ Barracouta _ ran in alongside Hardy 's weir at nine o'clock and took aboard thirty bushels of small fish . She then went around to Carver 's Harbor to purchase supplies and fill her tank with gasolene . It was Percy 's first visit to the town since July 4th , the occasion of his disastrous encounter with Jabe . In actual time , his defeat lay only a few weeks back ; but , measured by the change that had taken place in himself , the period might well have been years in length .