twelve o'clock
Cheer up , my boy , cheer up . I got a new engineer . He wo n't last , but he 'll last long enough for Mac to forget his grouch an ' listen to reason , '' and with this optimistic remark Captain Scraggs dropped into the engine room to get up enough steam to keep the winch working . Promptly at twelve o'clock , the longshoremen knocked off work for the lunch hour and Neils Halvorsen drifted across the street to cool his parched throat with steam beer . While waiting for Scraggs to come up out of the engine room , and take him to luncheon , Mr. Gibney sauntered aft and was standing gazing reflectively upon a spot on the _ Maggie 's _ stern where the hawsers had chafed away the paint , when suddenly big forebodings of evil returned to him a thousand fold stronger than they had been since Scraggs 's return to the little ship . He glanced up and beheld gazing down upon him Captains Jack Flaherty and Daniel Hicks . Battle was imminent and the valiant Gibney knew it ; wherefore he determined instantly to meet it like a man .