noon
These offers were all , of course , of a most advantageous character , and had we accepted them I feel sure that , joining either ship with the reputations which we had honestly won for ourselves , our advancement in the service would have been certain and rapid . But something in the admiral 's manner caused me to hesitate , so , with hearty thanks to each for his kind offer , I begged the favour of a few hours for consideration ; and Courtenay , taking his cue from me , did the same . When at length we all rose to take leave of our host and return to our respective ships the admiral drew Courtenay and me aside , and said , as he shook hands with us : `` Before you decide to accept or to refuse either of the offers which have been made to you to-night come and see me . I shall be on board the flag-ship to-morrow at noon . '' We promised that we would do so , and shortly afterwards got under weigh in company with our fellow guests , the whole party being on horseback , for Kingston ; our road , or rather the bush path along which we travelled for the greater part of the way , being brilliantly lighted by the rays of a glorious full moon . The `` autocrats of the quarter-deck '' with whom we thus found ourselves privileged to ride cheek by jowl all proved to be splendid fellows , very gentlemanly in their manner , yet -- having evidently sunk the quarter-deck for the nonce -- frank and hearty as I believe only sailors can be . They permitted , or rather they _ invited _ us by their cordial manner , to join freely in the conversation , instead of relegating us to the rear , as some captains would undoubtedly have done in like circumstances , and held out so many inducements for us to join that I at length got the idea into my head that they actually _ wanted _ us .