noon
It seemed unbelievably stupid and childish , what he imagined was behind the gratuitous intermeddling of Mr. Mussey ; but then , he reminded himself , if there is anything more stupid than to plot a criminal act , it is to permit oneself to be influenced by that criminal stupidity whose other name is jealousy . Well , whether he were right or wrong , the night would declare it ; and in any event there was no excuse whatever for refusing to profit by the stupidity of men whose minds are bent on vicious mischief ... . The weather thickened as the day grew older . Towards noon the wind , as if weary and discouraged with vain endeavour to make up its mind to blow from this quarter or that , died away altogether . At the same time the horizon appeared to close in perceptibly ; what little definition it had had in earlier hours was erased ; and the Sybarite , shearing the oily and lifeless waters of a dead calm , seemed less to make progress than to struggle sullenly in a pool of quicksilver at the bottom of a slowly revolving sphere of clouded glass , mutinously aware that all her labouring wrought no sort of gain . After an hour of this , Captain Monk , on the bridge with Mr. Swain , arrived at a decision of exasperation . Through the engine-room ventilators a long jingle of the telegraph was heard ; and directly the Sybarite 's pulses began to beat in quicker tempo , while darker volutes of smoke rolled in dense volume from her funnel and streamed away astern , resting low and preserving their individuality as long as visible , like a streak of oxidization on a field of frosted silver .