midnight
He shrugged his shoulders , and feeling his way to a coiled hawser sat down in the bight of it to contend with the first , faint touch of seasickness . For reasons of economy Thompson put himself up at a cheap rooming-house well out Market Street . His window looked out upon that thoroughfare which is to San Francisco what the aorta is to the arterial system . Gazing down from a height of four stories he could see a never-ending stir , hear the roar of vehicular traffic which swelled from a midnight murmur to a deep-mouthed roar in the daylight hours . And on either side the traffic lane there swept a stream of people like the current of the Stikine River . He was not a stranger to cities , no rustic gazing open-mouthed at throngs and tall buildings . His native city of Toronto was a fair-sized place as American and Canadian cities go .