midnight
`` I have my reasons , '' he said . `` Victor Carrington was once useful to me -- at least he endeavoured to be so . If he failed , the obligation is none the less ; and he is a man who will have his bond . '' The current of life flowed on at River View Cottage without so much as a ripple in the shape of an event , after the appalling midnight visit of Miser Screwton 's ghost , until one summer evening , when Captain Duncombe came home in very high spirits , bringing with him an old friend , of whom Miss Duncombe had heard her father talk very often ; but whom she had hitherto never seen . This was no other than George Jernam , the captain of the `` Albatross , '' and the owner of the `` Stormy Petrel '' and `` Pizarro . '' In London the captain of the `` Albatross '' found plenty of business to occupy him . He had just returned from an African cruise , and though he had not forgotten the circumstances which had made his last intended visit to England only a memorable and melancholy failure , he was in high spirits .