nearly eight in the evening
`` I ca n't even make a sane guess , sir , '' Jack Benson admitted . An hour and a half later the `` Hudson '' and the two submarines headed back for a safe little bay on the coast . Here the three craft anchored for the night . It was nearly eight in the evening when the three craft were snug at anchor . The bay was a small one , hardly worthy of the name . The only inhabited part of the shore thereabouts consisted of the fishing village known as Blair 's Cove , a settlement containing some forty houses . Hardly had all been made snug aboard the `` Farnum '' when Jack , standing on the platform deck after the cadets had been transferred to the `` Hudson '' for the night , saw a small boat heading out from shore .