three o'clock
A sea swept up the beach , licking around the trunks of the cocoanuts and subsiding almost at their feet . `` Way past high water mark , '' Captain Lynch remarked ; `` and I 've been here eleven years . '' He looked at his watch . `` It is three o'clock . '' A man and woman , at their heels a motley following of brats and curs , trailed disconsolately by . They came to a halt beyond the house , and , after much irresolution , sat down in the sand . A few minutes later another family trailed in from the opposite direction , the men and women carrying a heterogeneous assortment of possessions .