noon
`` The last dinner I had in Jamaica , and a very jolly one it was , as you all know , was out at Escondido , where we kept it up so late that I only got on board the ` Scourge ' at daylight , in time to get her under way with the land wind . Well , we were bound to windward , and for a week afterward we rolled about in a calm off Morant Bay , maybe twenty leagues off the island , and one morning we discovered a sail . She was a large merchant brig , heading any way , and bobbing about , as we were , in the calm . Toward noon , however , a light air sprang up , and we got within hail , and I went on board to say a word or two to the skipper , for we had news before leaving Kingston that that infamous pirate Brand , in his long-legged schooner ` Centipede , ' had been seen off Guadaloupe ; and , in fact , we had actually chased him off Matanzas three months before ; so I was ordered to give the brig a warning , particularly as she had reported a suspicious craft in sight that same morning at sunrise . When I got on board of her I saw -- '' Here Piron placed both hands to his face as he leaned his elbows on the table , and the commodore , checking himself , hurried on : `` Ah ! well , we kept the brig in sight all day , and ran round her once or twice in the evening , but toward midnight the trade wind freshened , and , as the coast seemed clear , and we were anxious to make up for lost time in the calm , we gradually came up to our course , and went bowling away to windward . `` I remember going below at the time , and just as I was about to turn in , I heard a quarter-master sing out to Hardy there , who was junior lieutenant of the ship , and who had the middle watch , that he saw a light going up to the brig 's gaff .