twelve o'clock
noon
_ It seemed to Sutter as he stood there that the surrounding silence grew more intense . Then he passed through a wide gateway and began to stride across an evenly clipped lawn toward a grove of trees beyond . Halfway he paused and glanced absently at his watch . It was exactly twelve o'clock noon . And abruptly the scene before him slipped out of plumb . The sky and the lawn seemed to alter positions , to rotate madly as in a vortex . The whirling ceased and the next instant Sutter stood on the shore of a lonely sea with a tawny width of sand stretching out before him and the waves washing up almost at his feet .