noon
` Have we so far to go , then ? Why , I came across in the half of a night . ' ` Add a day to the half and you have it . I let you down at dawn and towed you out until noon ; I then spied that sail beating up , and I knew there would be a storm by night , and -- and things were desperate with me . So I cast you off and came over to set the light . It was a chance I did not count on , that your dug-out should float this way ; I calculated that she would beach you safely on an island farther to the south . ' ` And all this time , when you were letting me down -- By the way , how did you do it ? '