midnight
The night was dark as pitch , the sky being overcast , and there was a gentle breeze blowing off the land , affording us smooth water for the delicate operation of landing . But there was no time to be lost , it wanting only four hours to daylight , by which time it would be necessary that the schooner should have secured a good offing ; so , having under Hoard 's pilotage stood in until the lead gave us twenty-one fathoms -- at which point Hoard informed us that we might consider ourselves half a mile from the land -- the gig was lowered , and , with her crew armed to the teeth , we shoved off , the second mate being in charge , with Hoard and myself sitting on either side of him in the stern-sheets , the former still acting as pilot . We paddled gently in , with muffled oars , and in the course of about ten minutes the boat gently grounded on a narrow strip of smooth , sandy beach at the base of a low , rugged cliff in a shallow bay . Here Hoard and I landed , the second mate receiving instructions to be at the same spot with the boat and a small supply of cooked provisions every night at midnight , and to remain a couple of hours , when , if he saw nothing of either of us , he was to return to the schooner until the next night . We stood on the beach until the boat had shoved off again and was lost in the darkness , when we turned away , and , Hoard leading , proceeded to climb the face of the cliff , which was by no means a difficult matter , as the ground , although somewhat precipitous , was grass-grown and thickly dotted with low , sturdy bushes . Five minutes sufficed us to reach the top , when we found ourselves facing a hillside , rising on our right to a very respectable height . This , however , was not the hill to which Hoard had alluded in his conversation with me .