about nine o'clock
-- is there only one restaurant in Manhattan ? '' Yet Justus Miles himself could not help feeling there was something mysterious about Solino , but just how mysterious he did not realize -- until , one evening , he stood with a half dozen of his fellow adventurers in a lonely spot on the Long Island coast and watched the darkness deepen around them . `` We shall wait , '' said Solino presently , `` until the moon comes up . '' The moon rose at about nine o'clock , flooding the beach and the heaving expanse of water with a ghostly light . From the folds of Solino 's cloak , close about his muffled throat , a peculiar ray of green light flashed out over the water . In answer , a green light flashed back , and presently , something low and black , like the body of a whale half submerged , stole towards the beach . Scarcely a ripple marked its progress , and the nose of it slid up on the sand .