The sun was blazing at them sideways from a wide expanse of blue sky.

The rear guard clouds of the gale were scurrying away over the horizon in front of their upward path.

Somehow, Philip's sailor's brain was befogged.
Those clouds must have blown to the northeast.

If that were so, what was the sun doing in the southeast at this time of the day?
It had hardly budged a point from the quarter in which some fitful gleams shone when that mad thing happened near the windlass.

Thinking he was still dizzy from the effects of the blow, which the girl had ascribed to the bursting of a shell, Philip glanced at his watch.