noon
-LSB- Illustration : THE STERN CHASE . -RSB- `` Thus we went on , the sea getting more regular every hour , so that we could send up the top-gallant masts , get the yards across , shake a reef or two out , and put the ` Scourge ' in order . The schooner needed no encouragement from us , but cracked on more sail until her long main-mast reeled and bent over , as she came up on the breaking ridge of a wave , like a whip-stalk . By noon the clouds had gone , and left us a clear sky , with the gale going down into a full top-gallant breeze , sending the corvette along good eleven knots . We got an observation for latitude , and five hours later we determined the longitude and our position to be a few leagues to leeward of the Sarrana Keys , with that bird of a schooner before us heading for the Musquito coast . `` If _ we _ had caught a cataract of water as it rolled over our bows in the morning , the schooner was taking _ her _ bath in the afternoon , for occasionally , for five minutes at a time , there was nothing seen of her deck , and only the masts and broad white canvas above , like jury-sticks out of a raft . But when she did slide up with her low , long hull shooting clean out of water , till nearly half her keel , with the copper sheathing flashing in the sun , was visible , she looked like a dolphin making a spring after a shoal of flying-fish .