noon
Take some one with you , if you ca n't do it alone . Bring him back here , quick ! '' It was nearly midnight when the clerk fruitlessly returned . It was the fierce high noon of `` steamer nights '' ; light flashed brilliantly from shops , counting-houses , drinking-saloons , and gambling-hells . The streets were yet full of eager , hurrying feet -- swift of fortune , ambition , pleasure , or crime . But from among these deeper harsher footfalls the echo of the homeless boy 's light , innocent tread seemed to have died out forever . When Clarence was once more in the busy street before the bank , it seemed clear to his boyish mind that , being now cast adrift upon the world and responsible to no one , there was no reason why he should not at once proceed to the nearest gold mines !