ten in the evening
When the use and limitations of his land-wheel had been made clear to his men , Shard bade them all turn in except those on watch . Long before dawn he woke them and by the very first gleam of light they got their ship under way , so that when those two fleets that had made so sure of Shard closed in like a great crescent on the Algerian coast there was no sign to see of the Desperate Lark either on sea or land ; and the flags of the Admiral 's ship broke out into a hearty English oath . The gale blew for three days and , Shard using more sail by daylight , they scudded over the sands at little less than ten knots , though on the report of rough water ahead -LRB- as the lookout man called rocks , low hills or uneven surface before he adapted himself to his new surroundings -RRB- the rate was much decreased . Those were long summer days and Shard who was anxious while the wind held good to outpace the rumour of his own appearance sailed for nineteen hours a day , lying to at ten in the evening and hoisting sail again at three a.m. when it first began to be light . In those three days he did five hundred miles ; then the wind dropped to a breeze though it still blew from the North , and for a week they did no more than two knots an hour . The merry men began to murmur then . Luck had distinctly favoured Shard at first for it sent him at ten knots through the only populous districts well ahead of crowds except those who chose to run , and the cavalry were away on a local raid .