about nine o'clock
Mark bent double to force himself to keep up with the others , lest somebody should think , by his inability to maintain an equal pace that he ought to follow the field-mouse back home . After they had struggled on for a while a bend of the valley gave them a few minutes of easy progress and Mark listened while Ernie Hockin explained to the Vicar what had happened : `` Just before dark Eddowes the coastguard said he reckoned there was a brig making very heavy weather of it and he should n't be surprised if she come ashore tonight . Could n't seem to beat out of the bay noways , he said . And afterwards about nine o'clock when me and Joe here and some of the chaps were in the bar to the Hanover , Eddowes come in again and said she was in a bad way by the looks of her last thing he saw , and he telephoned along to Lanyon to ask if they 'd seen her down to the lifeboat house . They reckoned she was all right to the lifeboat , and old man Timbury who do always go against anything Eddowes do say shouted that of course she was all right because he 'd taken a look at her through his glass before it grew dark . Of course she was all right . ` She 's on a lee shore , ' said Eddowes .