about four o'clock in the afternoon
Perrin was haunted perpetually by this idea : it was with him by day and by night . He went about like a man who was half asleep , and people began to complain that he did not even nod to his acquaintances when he met them . So the Christmas season passed and it was the last day of the Old Year . The cold and the snow disappeared , and the weather was mild and calm as Perrin rowed homewards about four o'clock in the afternoon . He had been to pull up his lobster pots which had been put down not far from Lihou island . Buried in thought , he did not notice how close he was rowing to the reef of rocks off the north of the island , till a loud cry startled him and he saw that someone was signalling to him from a jutting rock close to his boat . It was a woman .