noon
At nine o'clock the boys were sent , protesting , to bed ; and Dorothy , looking out of their window , as she fumbled about in the dark for a pair of Shep 's trowsers which needed mending , saw a lantern flickering up the road . It was Evesham , on his way to the mill-dams . The light glimmered on his oil-skin coat as he climbed the stile behind the well-curb . `` He raised the flood-gates at noon , '' Dorothy said to herself . `` I wonder if he is anxious about the dams . '' She resolved to watch for his return , but she was busy settling her mother for the night when she heard his footsteps on the porch . The roar of water from the hills startled Dorothy as she opened the door ; -- it had increased in violence within an hour .