five in the
afternoon
`` No , sir , '' the man replied . `` I did see a boat a while ago , and thought it was ours , but it turned out to be one from that Batavian Dutchman anchored below Pinchgut . Her captain always goes ashore about this time . '' Swinging round on his heel with an angry exclamation , the mate resumed his walk , muttering and growling to himself as elderly mates do mutter and growl when a captain promises to be on board at five in the afternoon and is not in evidence at half-past seven . Perhaps , too , the knowledge of the particular cause of the captain 's delay somewhat added to his chief officer 's ill-temper -- that cause being a pretty girl ; for the mate was a crusty old bachelor , and had but little sympathy with such `` tomfoolery . '' `` Why the devil could n't he say goodbye to her and be done with it and come aboard , '' he grumbled , `` instead of wasting half a day over it ? '' But Mr. Stevenson did not consider that in those days pretty women were not plentiful in Sydney , and virtue was even scarcer than good looks , and Dorothy Gilbert , only daughter of the Deputy Acting Assistant Commissary-General of the penal settlement , possessed all the qualifications of a lovable woman , and therefore it was not wonderful that Captain Charles Foster had fallen very much in love with her .