four o'clock
For what greater ecstasy can be the portion of any creature than that it be loved by a god ? This was just precisely Jerry 's ecstasy . This was a god , a tangible , real , three - dimensioned god , who went about and ruled his world in a loin-cloth and on two bare legs , and who loved him with crooning noises in throat and mouth and with two wide-spread arms that folded him in . At four o'clock , measuring a glance at the afternoon sun and gauging the speed of the _ Arangi _ through the water in relation to the closeness of Su'u , Van Horn went below and roughly shook the mate awake . Until both returned , Jerry held the deck alone . But for the fact that the white - gods were there below and were certain to be back at any moment , not many moments would Jerry have held the deck , for every lessened mile between the return boys and Malaita contributed a rising of their spirits , and under the imminence of their old-time independence , Lerumie , as an instance of many of them , with strong gustatory sensations and a positive drooling at the mouth , regarded Jerry in terms of food and vengeance that were identical . Flat-hauled on the crisp breeze , the _ Arangi _ closed in rapidly with the land .