noon
What ? '' Their talk drifted far away from Rudolph , far from China itself , to touch a hundred ports and islands , Cebu and Sourabaya , Tavoy and Selangor . They talked of men and women , a death at Zamboanga , a birth at Chittagong , of obscure heroism or suicide , and fortunes made or lost ; while the two boys , gentle , melancholy , gliding silent in bright blue robes , spread a white tablecloth , clamped it with shining brass , and laid the tiffin . Then the talk flowed on , the feast made a tiny clatter of jollity in the slumbering noon , in the silence of an ocean and a continent . And when at last the visitors clambered down the iron side , they went victorious with Spanish wine . `` Mind ye , '' shouted Captain Kneebone , from the rail , `` that do n't half exhaust the subjeck o ' lott ` ries ! Why , luck '' -- He shook both fists aloft , triumphantly , as if they had been full of money .