About noon
The storm increased until it blew a perfect hurricane , and the schooner rolled and creaked , now and then shivering in every timber . It was utterly impossible to sleep , and Eric , who was suffering from a headache , passed a miserable night . In the white sickly dawn the captain looked in again , and Electra thought that no ray of sunshine could be more radiant or cheering than his joyous , noble face . About noon the fury of the gale subsided , the sun looked out through rifts in the scudding clouds , and toward night fields of quiet blue were once more visible . By next morning the weather had cleared up , with a brisk westerly wind ; but the sea still rolled heavily ; and Eric , unable to bear the motion , kept below , loth to trust himself on his feet . Electra strove to while away the tedious time by reading aloud to him ; but many a yearning look was cast toward the deck , and finally she left him with a few books , and ran up to the open air . On the afternoon of the third day after leaving Havana the captain said -- `` Well , Miss Grey , I shall place you on Confederate soil to-morrow , God willing . ''