noon
The skipper hoped , in time -LRB- should the experiment prove successful at the mouth of the harbor -RRB- , to rig the dangerous and productive archipelago off Squid Beach and Nolan 's Cove with similar contrivances . There was not another man in Chance Along capable of conceiving such ideas ; but Dennis was ambitious -LRB- in his crude way -RRB- , imaginative , daring , unscrupulous and full of resources and energy . All day the skipper and his men worked strenuously , and at break of dawn on the morrow they returned to their toils . By noon a gigantic iron hook , forged by the skipper himself , with a shank as thick as a strong man 's arm and fully four feet long , had been set firmly in the face of the cliff . The skipper and five or six of his men stood at the edge of the barren , above the cliff and the harbor , wiping the sweat from their faces . Snow lay in patches over the bleak and sodden barren , a raw wind beat in from the east , and a gray and white sea snarled below . `` Boys , '' said the young skipper , `` I 's able to see ahead to the day whin there 'll be no want in Chance Along , but the want we pretends to fool the world wid .