noon
The `` Bertha 's '' Chinamen would have nothing to do with this member of a hostile Tong ; and the humiliated beach-comber kept almost entirely to himself , sitting on the forecastle-head all day long , smoking his sui-yen-hu and brooding silently to himself . Moran had taken the lump of ambergris from out Kitchell 's old hammock , and had slung the hammock itself in the schooner 's waist , and Charlie was made as comfortable as possible therein . They could do but little for him , however ; and he was taken from time to time with spells of coughing that racked him with a dreadful agony . At length one noon , just after Moran had taken the sun and had calculated that the `` Bertha '' was some eight miles to the southwest of San Diego , she was surprised to hear Wilbur calling her sharply . She ran to him , and found him standing in the waist by Charlie 's hammock . The Chinaman was dying , and knew it . He was talking in a faint and feeble voice to Wilbur as she came up , and was trying to explain to him that he was sorry he had deserted the schooner during the scare in the bay .