noon
Casual acquaintances scarcely ever detected the missing sense . English being his native tongue , Pether had naturally lost no word of the discussion over Weems 's manuscript , and directly the little schoolmaster and myself had left the _ caffè _ he had beckoned his servant Sadi , who was within call , and had gone off on his arm towards the harbour . There he threw money about right and left , and the information he wanted was given glibly . A freight steamer consigned to some senna merchants would be sailing for Tripoli at noon on the morrow . To the skipper of this craft he betook himself , and bargained to be set down unostentatiously in Minorca . It would mean a very slight deviation from the fixed course , and what he paid would be money into that skipper 's own pocket . You see Pether knew how to set about matters .