four o'clock
The pens were old , and had lain with the ink dry upon them ever since the outbreak of the Dutch War . The two men were half a minute in finding a couple that would write . Then Captain Runacles turned the hour-glass abruptly ; and for an hour there was no sound in the pavilion garden but the scratching of quills , the murmur of pigeons on the roof , and the creaking of the gilded vane above them . That same afternoon , at four o'clock , Captain Barker and Captain Runacles entered Harwich and advanced up the West Street side by side . Each had a bulky letter in his side-pocket , and the address upon each letter was the same . They talked but little . On the right-hand side of West Street , as you enter the town , and a hundred yards or more from the town gate , there stood at that time a two-storeyed house of more pretensions than its fellows -- from which it drew back somewhat .