about noon
No steps regarding a speedy hearing of the case were allowed , and the collusion between Judge Stillman and the receiver had become so generally recognized that there were uneasy mutterings and threats in many quarters . Yet , although the politician had by now virtually absorbed all the richest properties in the district and worked them through his hirelings , the people of Nome as a whole did not grasp the full turpitude of the scheme nor the system 's perfect working . Strange to say , Dextry , the fire-eater , had assumed an Oriental patience quite foreign to his peppery disposition , and spent much of his time in the hills prospecting . On this day , as the clouds broke , about noon , close down on the angry horizon a drift of smoke appeared , shortly resolving itself into a steamer . She lay to in the offing , and through his glasses Glenister saw that it was the Roanoke . As the hours passed and no boat put off , he tried to hire a crew , but the longshoremen spat wisely and shook their heads as they watched the surf . `` There 's the devil of an undertow settin ' along this beach , '' they told him , `` and the water 's too cold to drownd in comfortable . ''