about six in the evening
I explained humbly that I had been to the schoolmaster to get something to read , and produced my dingy red volumes . At that his brow cleared . I could see that his suspicions were set at rest . We left Colonsay about six in the evening with the sky behind us banking for a storm , and the hills of Jura to starboard an angry purple . Colonsay was too low an island to be any kind of breakwater against a western gale , so the weather was bad from the start . Our course was north by east , and when we had passed the butt-end of the island we nosed about in the trough of big seas , shipping tons of water and rolling like a buffalo . I know as much about boats as about Egyptian hieroglyphics , but even my landsman 's eyes could tell that we were in for a rough night .