About nine o’clock
Along the beach the pools left by the tide showed up like gouts of blood against the yellow sand , as if some wounded giant had toilfully passed that way , and had left these red traces of his grievous hurt behind him . As the darkness closed in , certain ragged clouds which had lain low on the eastern horizon coalesced and formed a great irregular cumulus . The glass was still low , and I knew that there was mischief brewing . About nine o'clock a dull moaning sound came up from the sea , as from a creature who , much harassed , learns that the hour of suffering has come round again . At ten a sharp breeze sprang up from the eastward . At eleven it had increased to a gale , and by midnight the most furious storm was raging which I ever remember upon that weather-beaten coast . As I went to bed the shingle and seaweed were pattering up against my attic window , and the wind was screaming as though every gust were a lost soul .