midnight
He was moved thereto , no doubt , by the fact that the brig , which had fallen somewhat astern of us , was also making sail . We had acquired the habit of regarding the _ Shark _ as a decidedly fast ship , but the manner in which the _ Dona Inez _ and our own little schooner slid through the water was a revelation to us all , especially when the wind fell quite light , as it did toward the close of the afternoon . Then , indeed , when our speed had dwindled to about four knots , and our canvas collapsed at every roll of the vessel for lack of wind to fill it , we were able to hold our own with the brig ; while still later , when the wind had fallen so light that the horizon had become invisible and the oil-smooth surface of the ocean showed scarcely a wrinkle in its satin - smooth folds to indicate that there was still a faint movement of the atmosphere , we gradually drew ahead of our consort , at the rate of about half a knot per hour , and even contrived to retain command of our little barkie , and keep her head pointed the right way , when the brig had begun to box the compass . It continued calm until shortly after midnight that night , when a faint breathing came creeping up to us from the eastward , to which we spread our studding-sails , and , an hour later , we were bowling merrily along at a speed of nine knots . The wind not only held through the night , but freshened with the sunrise , and throughout that day and the succeeding night our speed never fell below eleven knots , while for an hour or so , when it breezed up especially strong , our log showed that we were doing close upon fourteen . With the dawn of the third day after we had parted company with the _ Shark _ we found ourselves about two miles distant from our consort , both vessels steering to the north-westward , with the wind well over our starboard quarter , and our starboard studding-sails set . The wind was blowing a moderate breeze , there was a long but very regular sea running , and we were doing ten knots very comfortably , the little _ Francesca _ , sliding over the long liquid hills and down into the broad valleys as easily and buoyantly as a sea gull .