about midnight
`` The next day passed slowly . The sun was hot ; but toward evening the lieutenant gave permission for the men to bathe ; but warned us that no man must go far from the boats , because there might be sharks about . However , we did n't see none , and we enjoyed the dip , and were in better humor still when we found that a light breeze was springing up . It might have been about midnight when the men on watch made out a light to seaward , and we were n't long in getting up our grapnels and sitting our oars . In half an hour we were on board , and were soon sailing away from the island again . `` The next night in we came again , and I saw that the third lieutenant 's plan was going to be adopted ; in fact , I guessed so before ; for the sail makers had been at work with two light ropes making a rope ladder , and the ship 's smith had got some empty shells on deck , and had made a shift to screw some iron eyes into them for fixing ropes to . The gun was taken out of the pinnace and a little mortar fixed in her , and half a dozen ropes , each a hundred fathoms long , had knots put in them every two feet .