about nine o'clock
Determined to reach our destination that night we waited till the ebb stream made , and then towed the yacht with the dinghy . In the course of this a fog dropped on us suddenly , just as it had yesterday . I was towing at the time , and , of course , stopped short ; but Davies shouted to me from the tiller to go on , that he could manage with the lead and compass . And the end of it was that , at about nine o'clock , we anchored safely in the five-fathom roadstead , close to the eastern pier , as a short reconnaissance proved to us . It had been a little masterpiece of adroit seamanship . There was utter stillness till our chain rattled down , when a muffled shout came from the direction of the pier , and soon we heard a boat groping out to us . It was a polite but sleepy port-officer , who asked in a perfunctory way for our particulars , and when he heard them , remembered the _ Dulcibella _ s ' previous visit .