about midnight
And once outside -- What Michael J. Murphy did not know was that when one has dislocated one 's shoulder one will do very little wood-carving during the three subsequent weeks . It almost broke the skipper 's heart to think he had made a threat in good faith , and was balked from making it good . During this entire period Mr. Reardon was going about his duties as usual , in absolute ignorance of the state of affairs about the ship , for he was an innocent , trustful sort of fellow , and to a born romanticist like Terence the fairy tale which Mr. Schultz had spun at breakfast the morning after leaving Pernambuco was not at all difficult of assimilation . It appeared -- according to Mr. Schultz -- that the skipper had gone ashore for a night of roystering , and upon returning to the ship about midnight , in a wild state of intoxication , had become involved in an altercation with the launchman over the fare . In the resultant battle the skipper , in his helpless condition , was being terribly beaten by the vicious Pernambucan ; hence one could scarcely blame him for drawing a pistol and shooting the launchman -- fatally , according to Mr. Schultz . Of course , after that , to have lingered longer inside the three-mile limit would have been sheer insanity , so Mr. Schultz , taking matters into his own hands , had uphooked and skipped with doused lights from the jurisdiction of the Pernambuco police . `` And how did the skipper come out of all this ? ''