four o'clock
In a lull they pushed on . `` And the tide ? '' shouted the priest . `` It is high at four o'clock -- a spring tide , and the wind in the north-west -- not standing room on the shore against the cliff for a man from here to Glainval . '' At high tide the waves beat against the towering cliff all along this grim coast , and a man standing on the turf may not recognize his son on the rocks below , while the human voice can only span the distance in calmest weather . There are spaces of three and four miles between the gaps in the great and inaccessible bluffs . An evil lee-shore to have under one 's quarter -- one of the waste places of the world which Nature has set apart for her own use .