noon
`` Then come when you like , '' said Carrie , smiling . `` I think you mean to be nice . '' In the meantime , Jim had got to work and under his superintendence a gang of men piled barrowsful of peat soil on the wreck of the dabbin . By noon a bank had advanced across the piles of broken clay and a cut that was to make a new channel for the creek began to open . Once or twice Jake imagined an indistinct figure lurked among some clumps of gorse , as if watching the work , but he was not certain and said nothing . Jim and he did not go home for lunch and when the men stopped at noon found a sheltered hollow and opened a basket of food Jim had sent for . The day was bright , but a cold wind flecked the advancing tide with foam and swept the empty flats .