nine in the evening
Ky Jago -LRB- short for Caiaphas -RRB- , across the way , prophesied a big thunderstorm to come , but allowed he might be mistaken when on the morning of the 12th the rain came down in sheets . This torrential rain lasted until two in the afternoon , when the sky cleared and a pleasant northwesterly draught played up the valley . At six o'clock Ky Jago , who , in default of the Thatcher , was making shift to cover up Farmer Sprague 's ricks , observed dense clouds massing themselves over the sea and rolling up slowly against the wind , and decided that the big storm would happen after all . At nine in the evening it broke . It broke with such fury that the Stranger , with the black bottle under his arm , paused on the threshold as much as to ask his father , `` Shall I go ? '' But the old man was clamouring for drink , and he went . He was half-way down the hill when with a crack the heavens opened and the white jagged lightning fairly hissed by him .