nearly midnight
He was too good a seaman not to manage affairs shrewdly , and though the coming night was the one on which he had resolved to sail , yet the schooner floated as lazily as ever at her moorings . The sails were closely trailed , and the ropes and sheets coiled away as though they would not be used for months again . But could one have looked on board beneath her hatches , and out of sight of the crowded shipping in the bay , he might have counted a dozen stalwart youths , in the Greek costume , busily employed in getting everything ready below for a quick run , and as the shadows deepened over the Oriental scene , and the sun had fairly sunk to rest behind the lofty summit of Bulgurlu , one or two of the crew might have been seen quietly engaged here and there on deck , but their lazy , indolent movements , rather speaking of a long stay at their present anchorage than an idea of an early departure , and yet a true seaman would have observed that they were loosing everything , in place of making fast . It was nearly midnight when Selim and his party , headed by Aphiz , left his own ship in a small caique , and quietly pulled with muffled oars , to the side of the schooner , which they boarded without hailing . She had been moored the day previous without the outermost of the shipping , and scarcely had the party got fairly on board , when she slipped her cable , and showing the cap of her fore-topsail to the gentle night air that set over the plains of Belgrade and down the Valley of Sweet Waters , gradually floated away , until by hoisting a few rings of the flying jib , her bows were brought round , and she slipped off towards the Black Sea unnoticed . Not so much as the creaking of a block had been permitted to disturb the stillness , and now , when Capt. Selim felt too impatient not to make the most of the favorable land breeze , only the light jigger sail that was set so well aft as to reach far over the taffrail , was unfurled easily and dropped into its place , swelling away noiselessly . As impatient as he felt , he wished to skirt those shores silently , and resolved to take every precaution that would prevent a suspicion of the real hurry and anxiety that he felt from evincing itself .