five in the afternoon
The steamer was going , these men said , to Ostend . It was about two o'clock when my brother , having paid their fares at the gangway , found himself safely aboard the steamboat with his charges . There was food aboard , albeit at exorbitant prices , and the three of them contrived to eat a meal on one of the seats forward . There were already a couple of score of passengers aboard , some of whom had expended their last money in securing a passage , but the captain lay off the Blackwater until five in the afternoon , picking up passengers until the seated decks were even dangerously crowded . He would probably have remained longer had it not been for the sound of guns that began about that hour in the south . As if in answer , the ironclad seaward fired a small gun and hoisted a string of flags . A jet of smoke sprang out of her funnels .