about ten o'clock at night
An hour , two hours passed . The schooner went swiftly on toward the south , the wind singing merrily through the ropes and among the sails . The captain walked back and forth in a narrow space , circling the entire horizon with his glasses at intervals seldom more than five minutes apart . It was about ten o'clock at night when he made a sharp , decisive movement , and a look of satisfaction came over his face . He had been gazing into the west and the lad felt sure that he had seen there that for which he was seeking , but his own eyes , without artificial help , were not yet able to tell him what it was . The captain called the mate , speaking to him briefly and rapidly , and the sullen face of the Spaniard became alive . An order to the steersman and the course of the schooner was shifted more toward the west .