noon
One a large fat man , in a long dark dress , who appeared at times to be leaning over the rail as if he were sea-sick ; and the other a spare , tall-built fellow , who sat there with a quadrant in his hands and smoking cigars , measuring the distance between the two vessels as if he were a government surveyor , and especially appointed to make a hydrographical chart of the Caribbean Sea . Occasionally , too , we could see him approach the binnacle , spread a chart on the deck at his feet , examine it closely with a pair of dividers in his hands , and then he would return to his seat on the taffrail , cigar in his mouth and quadrant to his eye as before . `` Nor were we idle on board the ` Scourge ; ' for when the breeze lulled we slacked up the lower rigging and stays , got down all extra weight and hamper from the tops , sent the watch below to the berth-deck with a round shot apiece in their hammocks , moved a couple of carronades about the spar-deck till we got the ship in the best sailing trim , and then we went skipping and springing through the water with the elasticity of an India-rubber ball . `` At noon the sailing-master reported the position of the ship to be two hundred and eighty miles from the nearest land , which was the Darien Coast . So all that day and all that night , with a moon to make a lover weep to see , we went bowling after our waspish consort in hopes before long of taking the sting out of her . No kite ever pursued its quarry with a keener eye than we did . No hound ever leaped after a wolf with the froth streaming from his jaws and blood-red thirsty eyes , than did the ` Scourge ' chase that infamous pirate .