midday
He studied it with unceasing vigilance . `` If she comes out of there , '' he said , `` hard and snappy , putting us to windward of the boats , it 's likely there 'll be empty bunks in steerage and fo ' c ' sle . '' By eleven o'clock the sea had become glass . By midday , though we were well up in the northerly latitudes , the heat was sickening . There was no freshness in the air . It was sultry and oppressive , reminding me of what the old Californians term `` earthquake weather . '' There was something ominous about it , and in intangible ways one was made to feel that the worst was about to come .