noon
`` I ` ave to see all clear . Six shots , and mind you do n't wyste them . '' The captain , like a man in a nightmare , laid down his revolver on the table , and Huish wiped the cartridges and oiled the works . It was close on noon , there was no breath of wind , and the heat was scarce bearable , when the two men came on deck , had the boat manned , and passed down , one after another , into the stern-sheets . A white shirt at the end of an oar served as flag of truce ; and the men , by direction , and to give it the better chance to be observed , pulled with extreme slowness . The isle shook before them like a place incandescent ; on the face of the lagoon blinding copper suns , no bigger than sixpences , danced and stabbed them in the eyeballs : there went up from sand and sea , and even from the boat , a glare of scathing brightness ; and as they could only peer abroad from between closed lashes , the excess of light seemed to be changed into a sinister darkness , comparable to that of a thundercloud before it bursts . The captain had come upon this errand for any one of a dozen reasons , the last of which was desire for its success .