Six o'clock
`` It looks as though it were lifting , '' Neil Partington said , a couple of hours after we had entered the fog . `` Where do you say we are , Charley ? '' Charley looked at his watch . `` Six o'clock , and three hours more of ebb , '' he remarked casually . `` But where do you say we are ! '' Neil insisted . Charley pondered a moment , and then answered , `` The tide has edged us over a bit out of our course , but if the fog lifts right now , as it is going to lift , you 'll find we 're not more than a thousand miles off McNear 's Landing . ''