about noon
`` I fear little Duncan is going to slip through my fingers after all , sir . '' `` No ! -- I thought he had been better . '' `` So he was till about noon , when a twitching of the muscles came on , which I fear betokens lock jaw ; he wavers , too , now and then , a bad sign of itself where there is a fretting wound . '' We went below , where , notwithstanding the wind -- sail that was let down close to where his hammock was slung , the heat of the small vessel was suffocating . The large coarse tallow candle in the purser 's lantern , that hung beside his shoulder , around which the loathsome cockroaches fluttered like moths in a summer evening , filled the between decks with a rancid oil smell , and with smoke as from a torch , while it ran down and melted like fat before a fire . It cast a dull sickly , gleam on the pale face of the brown-hefted , girlish-looking lad , as he lay in his narrow hammock .