7 o'clock
Meantime the Nark crisscrossed and quartered the sea off Montauk Point , in search of the rumored `` fleet '' of liquor runners , but without success . Numerous sail were sighted as well as steamers , but the latter were all so large as to preclude in the opinion of the revenue men the possibility of their being liquor carriers , and the former never stood close enough to be examined . Nor did any assemblage of vessels sufficiently large to warrant the designation `` fleet '' appear . Late in the day , when the low descending sun warned of the approach of nightfall , and the boys ' watches showed 7 o'clock , Lieutenant Summers again consulted with Captain Folsom , who presently rejoined the boys with word that they were going to turn back and cruise offshore and that the boys in an hour or two could be landed , not at Starfish Cove , but at their own boathouse , thus involving only a short trip afoot home for Bob . Hardly had the boat 's course been altered , however , when `` Sparks '' appeared from the radio room in a state of high excitement , addressed Lieutenant Summers who was on the little bridge , and the two returned together . The wireless room originally had been the chart house . It was equipped for the employment , both sending and receiving , of wireless telegraphy and telephony .