nearly four o'clock
If the captain had n't flurried me with all the silly things he said , I believe I would have ferreted out the trouble all right . But I was so cross and tired and disgusted that my brain was stalled as well as the Manton , and so I gave up for a little while and would n't even answer the captain when he spoke to me . `` Oh , yes , we were pigs , both of us , he in his way and I in mine ; and the sun went down and down , and it did n't make me feel any better to think that I was smudged all over with grease , and that my hands and nails were something awful -- while if ever there was a galley-slave at the oar , it was the Honorable John Vincent Cartwright cranking . `` We went on in this way till nearly four o'clock , when what should we hear coming along the road but a buggy , and who should be in that buggy but Gerard Malcolm with an actressy-looking girl ! I was n't over-pleased at the girl part of it , but it did my heart good to see Gerard . He drew up alongside the Manton and leaped out of the buggy , so splendid and handsome and cool and masterful , with a glisten in his eye which said : ` Bring on your gas-engine ! ' -- that I loved him harder than ever , and could have almost torn the captain 's ring off my finger .