noon
Afterward she made some inquiries in the adjoining huts . One woman only had seen his departure . `` I could not go to kirk this morning , '' she said with an air of apology , `` for my bairn is very sick ; and I saw Nicol Sinclair go away . It was near the noon hour . Drunk he was , and worse drunk than most men can be . His face was red as a hot peat , and he swayed to and fro like a boat on the Gruting Voe . There was something no ' just right about the man . ''