midnight
Dick stepped from under the tree and looked at the prodigy in the air . The cyclone had gathered on its way sea-birds and birds from the land ; there were gulls , electric white and black man-of-war birds , butterflies , and they all seemed imprisoned under a great drifting dome of glass . As they went , travelling like things without volition and in a dream , with a hum and a roar the south-west quadrant of the cyclone burst on the island , and the whole bitter business began over again . It lasted for hours , then towards midnight the wind fell ; and when the sun rose next morning he came through a cloudless sky , without a trace of apology for the destruction caused by his children the winds . He showed trees uprooted and birds lying dead , three or four canes remaining of what had once been a house , the lagoon the colour of a pale sapphire , and a glass-green , foam-capped sea racing in thunder against the reef . At first they thought they were ruined ; then Dick , searching , found the old saw under a tree , and the butcher 's knife near it , as though the knife and saw had been trying to escape in company and had failed . Bit by bit they began to recover something of their scattered property .