noon
`` I 'm listening , all attention . '' `` At eight bells that day , another man-of-war come in , bringing an empty slaver she had taken before she had shipped her cargo . In this vessel we were able to separate some of the poor wretches packed on board our Brazilian schooner , and so send them comfortably on to Sierra Leone , which was what we were waiting to do , as I 've told you already ; and now being free to go cruising again , we hove up anchor and made our way down the coast to watch for another slaver which we had heard news of by the man-o ' - war that came in to relieve us . `` We had a spanking breeze all day , for a wonder , as it generally fails at noon ; but towards the evening , when we had made some eighty miles or so from the Bights , it fell suddenly dead calm , as if the wind had been shut off slap without warning . It was bright before , but the moment the calm came a thick white mist rose around the vessel , just like that which came just now from seaward , and has hidden the island and Spithead from view ; you see how it 's reminded me now of the west coast and the Niger river , Master Charles , do n't you ? '' `` Ay , '' said I , `` Jim , I see what you were driving at . '' `` Those thick mists , '' he continued , `` always rise on the shores of Afrikey in the early mornings -- just as there was a thick one when Gil had seen his ghost , as he said -- and they comes up again when the sun sets ; but you never sees 'em when the sun 's a-shining bright as it was that arternoon .