noon
Who 'll second me ? '' And two minutes later we were all diving from the boat into cool , deep water , that reflected a thousand moons as the waves broke away from us in countless ripples . We slept in blankets under the open sky , Sangree and I taking the outside places , and were up before sunrise to catch the dawn wind . Helped by this early start we were half-way home by noon , and then the wind shifted to a few points behind us so that we fairly ran . In and out among a thousand islands , down narrow channels where we lost the wind , out into open spaces where we had to take in a reef , racing along under a hot and cloudless sky , we flew through the very heart of the bewildering and lonely scenery . `` A real wilderness , '' cried Dr. Silence from his seat in the bows where he held the jib sheet . His hat was off , his hair tumbled in the wind , and his lean brown face gave him the touch of an Oriental .