midnight
`` We will when our cartridges get low , '' agreed the captain . `` But I 'm hoping they 'll charge us first in the morning . We could drop a bunch of 'em before they closed in on us , and then we 'd have a better chance in hand-to-hand fighting . '' After dark the captain posted three men some distance within the forest , with the promise that they should be relieved at midnight and with strict injunctions to keep a vigilant watch and report to him at once should anything seem suspicious . Rogers was delegated to make his way down to the beach , where it was supposed the mutineers would encamp for the night , to see if he could gain any information as to their plan of attack on the morrow . To Ruth this whole situation was a most terrifying one ; but nobody displayed more bravery than she . She had attended to the two wounded men skilfully .