nine o'clock in the morning
`` We shall not need to ` manage ' at all , '' answered Milsom , `` for the simple reason that we shall not take a pilot . If we get under way at about eight o'clock to-morrow morning we shall reach our destination with several hours of daylight in hand ; and with the help of this chart , a hand aloft on the foremast , and two leadsmen in the forechains , I will guarantee to take this little hooker in and out of that berth without so much as scratching her paint . Oh , no , we shall not take a pilot , who might possibly go back to Havana and set people wondering what the mischief was our object in slipping in behind Esquivel del Norte cay ! '' With all due observance of the courtesies of the sea the graceful , white-hulled _ Thetis _ dipped a farewell salute to the Spanish warships in Havana harbour as she next morning swept past them , outward bound , shortly after nine o'clock in the morning of a glorious April day . Jack was on the navigating bridge with Milsom , and as the beautiful little ship , looking as spick and span as though just fresh from the stocks , and with all her brasswork gleaming and flashing like burnished gold in the brilliant morning sunlight , brought the lighthouse abeam and gaily plunged her keen , shapely bows into the heart of the first blue , wind - whipped , foam-crested surge that met her , and in joyous greeting playfully flung a shower of diamond-tinted spray over her starboard cathead , the young man sighed a sigh of relief , and flung from his shoulders the heavy load of care and anxiety that had of late been wearing him down a great deal more than he knew or even suspected : for now , at last , the expedition that meant so much to him had actually begun , and very soon he would know the best and the worst that was to be known ; and perhaps , after all , the worst might prove to be not nearly so bad as he had been led to believe . Alvaros , he was convinced , was not only a blatant braggart , but also an unmitigated liar , and it might be that the foul deed of which he had boasted had never happened , and that the boast was merely another lie . Milsom , regarding his companion with a sympathetic eye , noted how Jack straightened up and flung back his shoulders like a fighter preparing for the fray , and how his eye brightened and his cheek flushed as the strong , salt breeze met his nostrils and swept into his lungs , exhilarating as a draught of wine -- and chuckled , for he knew now that the worst was over , and that the collapse which he had been half - dreading would not now come .