ten o'clock
Susy was a good deal surprised at this , but feeling that if she were to wait for the clearing up of the mystery she would infallibly be late in reaching the shop of the exacting Stickle and Screw , she swept lightly past the seaman with a short laugh , and ran down-stairs . Without a word of explanation Sam sprang after her , but , although smart enough on the shrouds and ladders of shipboard , he failed to accommodate himself to the stairs of rookeries , and went down , as he afterwards expressed it , `` by the run , '' coming to an anchor at the bottom in a sitting posture . Of course the lithe and active Susy escaped him , and also escaped being too late by only half a minute . `` Never mind , she 'll be back again between nine and ten o'clock , unless they keep her late , '' said old Liz , after Sam had explained who he was , and found that Susy was indeed his daughter , and chimney-pot Liz the nurse who had tended his wife to her dying day , and afterwards adopted his child . `` I never was took aback so in all my life , '' said the seaman , sitting down beside the old woman , and drawing a sigh so long that it might have been likened to a moderate breeze . `` She 's the born image o ' what her dear mother was when I first met her . _ My _ Susy !