about
noon
Again our charge was the least anxious of the party . It was very likely that the men belonged to the Custom House , he said quietly , and that they had no thought of us . I tried to persuade myself that it was so , -- as , indeed , it might easily be . However , I proposed that he and I should walk away together to a distant point we could see , and that the boat should take us aboard there , or as near there as might prove feasible , at about noon . This being considered a good precaution , soon after breakfast he and I set forth , without saying anything at the tavern . He smoked his pipe as we went along , and sometimes stopped to clap me on the shoulder . One would have supposed that it was I who was in danger , not he , and that he was reassuring me .