three o'clock
Both of them had kept carefully away from the _ Cypriani _ . Now they proceeded to her by different routes , and reached her at different times , Peter first . Their luggage had gone aboard before them , and there was no longer a thing to wait for . At three o'clock , on Varney 's signal , the ship 's bell sounded , her whistle shrieked , and she slid off through the waters of the bay . About the start there was nothing in the least dramatic : they had merely begun moving through the water and that was all . The _ Cypriani _ , for all her odd errand , was merely one of a thousand boats which indifferently crossed each other 's wakes in one of the most crowded harbors in the world . `` For all the lime-light we draw , '' observed Maginnis , drinking in the freshening breeze , `` we might be running up to Harlem to address the fortnightly meeting of a Girls ' Friendly Society . ''