about three o'clock in
the morning
`` Well , we jawed back and forth for an hour , maybe more . Two or three times we got up to have it out , but 't was too hot to fight , so we set down again . Fin ` lly we eat some supper , custard apples and water , and turned in . `` But 't was too hot to sleep much , and I got up about three o'clock in the morning and went out and set down on the beach in the moonlight . Pretty soon out comes Hammond and sets down alongside and begins to give the weather a general overhauling , callin ' it everything he could lay tongue to . Pretty soon he breaks off in the middle of a nine-j ` inted swear word and sings out : `` ` Am I goin ' crazy , or is that a schooner ? ' `` I looked out into the moonlight , and there , sure enough , was a schooner , about a mile off the island , and coming dead on .