About four o'clock in the afternoon
The purser declared that the steamer would remain at anchor until morning , taking on her fruit during the night . The _ Karlsefin _ had come , he said , from New York , to which port her latest load of oranges and cocoanuts had been conveyed . Two or three of the freighter sloops were engaged to assist in the work , for the captain was anxious to make a quick return in order to reap the advantage offered by a certain dearth of fruit in the States . About four o'clock in the afternoon another of those marine monsters , not very familiar in those waters , hove in sight , following the fateful _ Idalia _ -- a graceful steam yacht , painted a light buff , clean-cut as a steel engraving . The beautiful vessel hovered off shore , see-sawing the waves as lightly as a duck in a rain barrel . A swift boat manned by a crew in uniform came ashore , and a stocky-built man leaped to the sands . The new-comer seemed to turn a disapproving eye upon the rather motley congregation of native Anchurians , and made his way at once toward Goodwin , who was the most conspicuously Anglo-Saxon figure present .