ten o'clock
I 'll stand watch . '' Then he leaped up the steep steps leading to the quarter deck , closely followed by Jo , who took Pete 's place at the wheel , while that worthy went below ; and the captain turned into his cabin on the quarter deck without more ado . If anyone besides Jim had been so forgetful , there would have been a vast amount of growling on his part , but Jim was a favorite . It was now ten o'clock , and the ship steadily held her way over the plunging seas , and the wind came from out the vague spaces of the night , not chill , but bracing . How Jim loved it ! Sometimes he felt when he was pacing the deck at night on watch , that he liked the ocean even better than the mountains . As he strode back and forth he thought and pondered over Jeems ' story .