four o'clock
`` Excuse me , sir ; I do n't wish to pry into your affairs ; and with your permission I will go home now , '' replied Donald . `` You have my permission to go home , '' sneered the strange man ; and Donald availed himself of it without another instant 's delay . Certainly Captain Shivernock was a very strange man , and Donald could not begin to understand why he had given him the Juno and the sixty dollars in cash . It was plain enough that he had not been near Hasbrook 's house , though it was not quite clear how , if he left home at four o'clock , he had got aground eight miles from the city at the same hour ; but there was probably some error in Donald 's reckoning . The young man went home , and , on the way , having assured himself , to his own satisfaction , that he had no painful duty in regard to the captain to perform , he soon forgot all about the matter in the more engrossing consideration of his great business enterprise . When he entered the cottage , his mother very naturally asked him where he had been ; and he gave her all the details of his interview with Mr. Rodman . Mrs. Ramsay was more cheerful than she had been before since the death of her husband , and they discussed the subject till bed time .