midnight
`` And what then ? '' says I , mighty short . '' 'T is a name I shall mind as long as I do my own , and that is Mings -- Abnegation Mings . '' `` Aye , '' says I. `` You told me this when you sang of dead men in a wood at midnight -- '' `` Ha , 't was you , was it , master ! Well , here lieth poor Roger dead or dying and me little better , and 't is far to the Main and an ill journey , but should we come there and live , there be two men shall wonder at ye , master , nor ever forget the name o ' the man as saved our necks . Howsoever , come life or death , here 's Abnegation doth wish ye a fair wind ever and always , master . '' So they bore him , together with Tressady , to the pinnace , and setting them aboard , shoved them adrift , and I watched Abnegation ply feeble oars until the boat was through the passage in the reef and out in the open sea beyond .