noon
By eight o'clock , all was ready and they pushed slowly out into the stream . Agnew took the steering oar , Enoch , his usual place , with Jonas behind him . The river was wild and swift here , but , after they had worked carefully and painfully out of the aftermath of the falls , the current was unobstructed for several hours . All the morning , Jonas watched eagerly for traces of the Na-che but up to noon , none appeared . The sky was cloudy , threatening rain . The walls , now smooth , now broken by pinnacles and shoulders , were sad and gray in color . Milton sometimes slept uneasily , but for the most part he lay with lips compressed , eyes on the gliding cliffs .