ten minutes to
ten
The remainder of the crew were dimly visible seated on the deck in the black shadow of the bulwarks , a tiny red spark or two indicating that some of them were solacing the idle hours with a whiff or two of the fragrant weed . Officers who were strict disciplinarians would have forbidden smoking in the watch on deck , and would have insisted on the whole watch keeping constantly on the move , as a safeguard against dozing ; but Ritson was not a strict disciplinarian ; he liked to spare the men all unnecessary labour of every kind , and , as there was no sail-trimming to be done , he just allowed them to rest their weary bodies as much as they could . He would have liked greatly to rest his own weary body , too , for indeed he felt it to be almost a torture to be pacing ceaselessly to and fro there on the deck , hour after hour . He pulled out his watch , the hands indicated that it was ten minutes to ten ; it would be full two hours more before he would be relieved . There was a most inviting-looking chair standing on deck near the skylight , which Captain Leicester had been using during the day , and poor Ritson thought how pleasant it would be to rest his tired limbs in it for a few minutes . Then he took a stroll round the decks , just to wile away the time , and to make sure that the watch -- and especially the lookout -- was not `` caulking . '' The shadowy figures scrambled somewhat hurriedly to their feet on his approach , giving rise to just the faintest suspicion that perhaps after all they _ might _ have been `` shutting their eyes to keep them warm ; '' but the lookout man seemed unconscious of his presence , and was humming , scarcely above his breath , the air of a homely song as Ritson passed him , his gaze resting on a brig ahead , which had been in sight all day , and which , from the fact that she was steering in the same direction as the _ Aurora _ , was thought to belong , like themselves , to the dispersed fleet .