noon
`` By Jove , I 'd like to do something to show her I 'm not the blooming duffer she thinks I am . '' He could not find Baron Dangloss that night , nor early the next day . Hobbs , after being stigmatised as the only British coward in the world , changed his mind and made ready to accompany King to the hovel in Ganlook Gap . By noon the streets in the vicinity of the Plaza were filled with strange , rough-looking men , undeniably labourers . `` Who are they ? '' demanded King , as they rode past a particularly sullen , forbidding crowd at the corner below the city hail . `` There 's a strike on among the men who are building the railroad , '' said Hobbs .