eight o'clock
`` They tell me , sir , that Missis Marie -- that is , Missis Durnovo -- has gone back to her people at Sierra Leone . '' Thus spoke Joseph to his master one afternoon in March , not so many years ago . They were on board the steamer Bogamayo , which good vessel was pounding down the West Coast of Africa at her best speed . The captain reckoned that he would be anchored at Loango by half-past seven or eight o'clock that evening . There were only seven passengers on board , and dinner had been ordered an hour earlier for the convenience of all concerned . Joseph was packing his master 's clothes in the spacious cabin allotted to him . The owners of the steamer had thought it worth their while to make the finder of the Simiacine as comfortable as circumstances allowed .