noon
The boys were streaming up the ladders . Above could be heard a great scurrying about and shouting , and when he got through the hatchway he stood still -- as if confounded . It was the dusk of a winter 's day . The gale had freshened since noon , stopping the traffic on the river , and now blew with the strength of a hurricane in fitful bursts that boomed like salvoes of great guns firing over the ocean . The rain slanted in sheets that flicked and subsided , and between whiles Jim had threatening glimpses of the tumbling tide , the small craft jumbled and tossing along the shore , the motionless buildings in the driving mist , the broad ferry-boats pitching ponderously at anchor , the vast landing-stages heaving up and down and smothered in sprays . The next gust seemed to blow all this away . The air was full of flying water .