noon
And so she finally went to sleep thinking of Stephen . It is seldom that even the _ Charles Quex _ , one of the fastest ships plying between Marseilles and Algiers , makes the trip in eighteen hours , as advertised . Generally she takes two half-days and a night , but this time people began to say that she would do it in twenty-two hours . Very early in the dawning she passed the Balearic Isles , mysterious purple in an opal sea , and it was not yet noon when the jagged line of the Atlas Mountains hovered in pale blue shadow along a paler horizon . Then , as the turbines whirred , the shadow materialized , taking a golden solidity and wildness of outline . At length the tower of a lighthouse started out clear white against blue , as a shaft of sunshine struck it . Next , the nearer mountains slowly turned to green , as a chameleon changes : the Admiralty Island came clearly into view ; the ancient nest of those fierce pirates who for centuries scourged the Mediterranean ; and last of all , the climbing town of Algiers , old Al-Djézair-el-Bahadja , took form like thick patterns of mother-o ' - pearl set in bright green enamel , the patterns eventually separating themselves into individual buildings .