midnight
The hours sped on without change of any sort , except that when at length midnight arrived there was no longer any room to doubt that , since we had taken in our square canvas , and thus relieved the overdriven little hooker , we had steadily , if somewhat slowly , head-reached and weathered upon the commodore ; and then , as there seemed to be no prospect of any further news from our consort that night , I went below and turned in , leaving instructions that I was to be called at once , without fail , should anything occur to render necessary my presence on deck , or should the commodore exhibit any further signals . In less than five minutes I was fast asleep . I was awakened next morning by the loud knocking of the steward at my state-room door . `` Six bells , Mistah Grenvile , sah ; and here is your coffee , '' announced San Domingo , as he stood balancing the cup and saucer in his hand and swaying to the still lively movements of the schooner , although it struck me at once that she was not nearly so lively in her motions as she had been when I turned in at midnight . I raised myself in my bunk and peered through the closed scuttle that was let into the side of the ship . The little craft was still lying over far enough to cause the sea to wash up over the glass and obscure the view occasionally , but there were nevertheless intervals of quite long enough duration to enable me to note that the morning was overcast and lowering , with a decided thundery look in the sky , and that the sea had gone down very considerably while I had been lying asleep . `` Well , San Domingo , '' I said , `` are there any signs of the chase ?