noon
I went aboard and got this stateroom and put on these clothes and went up in the pilot-house -- to watch , though I did n't reckon there was any need of it . I set there and played with my di ` monds and waited and waited for the boat to start , but she did n't . You see , they was mending her machinery , but I did n't know anything about it , not being very much used to steamboats . `` Well , to cut the tale short , we never left there till plumb noon ; and long before that I was hid in this stateroom ; for before breakfast I see a man coming , away off , that had a gait like Hal Clayton 's , and it made me just sick . I says to myself , if he finds out I 'm aboard this boat , he 's got me like a rat in a trap . All he 's got to do is to have me watched , and wait -- wait till I slip ashore , thinking he is a thousand miles away , then slip after me and dog me to a good place and make me give up the di ` monds , and then he 'll -- oh , I know what he 'll do ! Ai n't it awful -- awful !