noon
`` Very likely you are right , Ernest ; we shall see . It is twelve o'clock now , and we have n't much time to consider what we shall do , '' said Bob Hale , looking very serious ; and it was evident now , if it had not been before , that he had strong objections to any steamboat enterprises . `` It 's nearly dinner time , '' added Tom ; `` and I must go and see about the provender . '' Bob Hale went below to have a talk with Vallington , and the commissary left for the kitchen , to provide our noon rations . I was left alone in the wheel-house . I enjoyed my occupation very much ; but the talk of my friends had filled me with doubts and fears , so that my situation was not so delightful as before . I could not help asking myself what was to come out of this scrape , and it seemed to me that it could result in nothing but defeat and disaster .