midnight
An awful chase , enduring many minutes ; a chase when I went hot and cold , now filled with hope , then seeming to stand on the very brink of death . But at last the firing ceased . We left our course , steaming for some hours due south across the very track of the nameless ship ; and we went headlong into the fog , the men standing yet at their posts , no soul giving a thought to the lesser danger that was begotten of our speed ; every one of us held in that strange after-tension which follows upon calamity . When I left the bridge it was midnight . I was soaked to the skin and nigh frozen , and the water ran even from my hair ; but a hot hand was put into mine as I entered the cabin , and then a thousand questions rained upon me . `` I 'll tell you by-and-by , Mary . Were you very much afraid ? ''