four o'clock
`` Some day -- that 's a long way off . However , shout as much as you please . '' And with this ironical advice , Engineer Serko leaves me to my own reflections . Towards four o'clock a big ship is reported about six miles off to the east , coming in our direction . She is moving rapidly and grows perceptibly larger . Black clouds of smoke pour out of her two funnels . She is a warship , for a narrow pennant floats from her main-mast , and though she is not flying any flag I take her to be an American cruiser .