noon
`` She was swashin ' Suds and washin ' Shirts beneath her orange-tree , '' he says . `` Why , I got to go down and spank 'em ! '' he says , and he rolled out of the hammock and went off down the road toward Portate with Irish pattering after him . We saw no more of them that day , and we did n't hear any news until the noon following . There was a gale from the northwest in the morning . I went down to the city in the afternoon , and found the Plaza boiling with news . It seemed that Sadler had gone aboard the _ Harvest Moon _ and surprised the two soldiers , and dipped them in the water with their artillery , and sent them uptown with the wet warrant stuck in the muzzle of a gun .