nine o'clock
And the land ate on . * * * * * My work here rose to a climax a week or two before Christmas , when the newest liner of them all pulled off a new world 's record for speed . With the company 's publicity man , who had become a friend of mine , I went on the health officer 's tug down the Bay to meet her , on the coldest , darkest night I 've ever known on water . Shortly after nine o'clock the big boat 's light gleamed off the Hook and she bore down upon us . She came close , slowed down and towered by our side , weird as a ghost with snow and ice in glimmering sheets on her steel sides . She did not stop . We caught a rope ladder and scrambled up , and at once we felt her speeding on .