a
quarter past eight
There is less than half a boat 's length of keel-mark , and it is just up above high-water mark . This craft , which appears to have been a small rowing-boat , was run ashore at high tide , or very near it , and run out again very quickly . It might conceivably have come in and been caught up by the sea . But Sholto was stolen between a quarter past eight and half-past nine , when the tide was well on the way out . If Sholto went out to sea it was not in this boat . '' `` Well , '' said Garnesk , thoughtfully , `` your point is good enough for me . We must look somewhere else . ''