midnight
Gertrude was left in ignorance of the change . To her uninstructed eye , all appeared the same on the wilderness of the ocean ; Wilder having it in his power to alter the direction of his vessel as often as he pleased , without his fairer and more youthful passenger being any the wiser for the same . Not so , however , with the intelligent Commander of the `` Caroline '' himself . To him there was neither obscurity nor doubt , in the midst of his midnight path . His eye had long been familiar with every star that rose from out the waving bed of the sea , to set in another dark and ragged outline of the element ; nor was there a blast , that swept across the ocean , that his burning cheek could not tell from what quarter of the heavens it poured out its power . He knew , and understood , each inclination made by the bows of his ship ; his mind kept even pace with her windings and turnings , in all her trackless wanderings ; and he had little need to consult any of the accessories of his art , to tell him what course to steer , or in what manner to guide the movements of the nice machine he governed . Still was he unable to explain the extraordinary evolutions of the stranger .