morning, noon
`` Shark nebber follow ship for nuffin ' ! '' `` No , '' observed Captain Miles grimly ; `` this beggar sha 'n' t at all events , if I know it ! '' and he paced up and down the poop , as if revolving the matter in his mind . This was the third day after the affair had happened , and the captain was quite incensed at the shark 's pertinacity ; for , morning , noon , and night , whenever we logged over the side , there could be seen the sea - pirate 's long sinewy body , floating under our stern and always keeping pace with the ship whether she was going fast or slow -- although , as we had little or no wind , the latter was generally the case . `` I fancy , Mr Marline , '' said the captain , soon after replying to Harry 's rather frightened observation , the mulatto being very timid and of a cowardly nature , as the fact of his fainting when the cow invaded the cabin would readily tell -- `` I say , Mr Marline , I think it 's time for us to give that joker down there a lesson , eh ? '' `` Perhaps you 'll find him too artful to take a hook , cap ` en , '' answered the mate . `` He seems to me an ` old sojer , ' from the look of him and the regularity of his movements .