six o'clock
`` But your going in the Islander depended on your business ; and when I saw you the morning before we sailed , you could not tell what you would do . You instructed me to water and provision the vessel , and wait for further orders . Towards evening , you sent off a card by young Boomsby , directing me to have steam up and be ready to sail early in the morning . I was ready to go by six o'clock , '' answered the captain , taking from his desk in the pilot-house a package of papers , from which he selected the card sent off by Nick . `` Is it all straight so far ? '' `` Entirely : it was just as you say . I received a letter by the afternoon mail , which assured me a business matter would allow me to be absent from New York a month or six weeks longer ; and I decided to go up the river with the Sylvania . ''