midnight before
She called her father , who by this time had put on his dry clothes . He asked her to point out the spot where she had first seen it . `` Yes -- yes , it may possibly drift into the bay ! '' he exclaimed ; `` but it will be midnight before it can reach the shore . I must go out , however , and set men to watch , for it is large enough to support a dozen or more people , though it is scarcely possible that they should have clung on in that heavy sea out there . '' Once more the Captain and Tom , habited in their foul-weather clothes , repaired to the beach . Darkness was coming on , and the object they were in search of was only for an instant at a time visible as it rose to the foaming summit of a wave .