noon
It was too dark to examine for footprints , and even Mark , after taking a look all about , felt he might have been deceived by shadows . Still he was a little nervous , and could hardly sleep for imagining what the thing he saw could have been . The next day every one was so busy that no one , not even Mark , recalled the little excitement of the night before . Shortly after noon , final preparations having been made , they all got aboard the _ Mermaid _ and started off . It was a bright sunshiny day , and the craft , speeding away from the island where it had been constructed , over the dancing blue waves , must have presented a strange sight had there been any spectators . For surely no such ship had ever before sailed those waters . However , there was no other vessel in sight , and the island , as far as the professor and his friends knew , had never been inhabited .