five o'clock in the evening
At least we saw no more of them down aboard the yacht ; but after they had been gone some three or four days Kennedy received an invitation to go up to Kandy , to dine and spend the next day there ; and when he returned he brought with him a similar invitation for me , it being now impossible for us both to be out of the ship together , since , immediately upon Briscoe 's departure , I had been temporarily promoted to the position of second mate , with the promise of permanent confirmation in the event of Briscoe not rejoining us . So in my turn , up I went to Kandy , and enjoyed the trip immensely , being most warmly received by everybody except Julius , who seemed wholly unable to conquer his antipathy toward me . When the party returned to the yacht they were all , Julius included , looking vastly better for their sojourn among the hills ; indeed the boy appeared better in health than I had ever seen him before , and I thought there was a shade of improvement in his temper also . They came aboard about half-past five o'clock in the evening , and , we having been previously warned by letter , the moment that they stepped in on deck we hove up our anchor , started our engine , and proceeded to sea , in order that we might avoid spending the night in the insufferable heat of the harbour . We kept the engine going until we had rounded Dondra Head and were heading north , with Adam 's Peak square off our port beam , when we made sail , bound for Calcutta , where we arrived exactly a week later . We lay at Calcutta a whole month , during which Mrs Vansittart and her party toured India from end to end , seeing , according to her own account , everything worth seeing . And while she was thus engaged , we of the wardroom did our modest best to enjoy ourselves , first of all seeing everything that was worth seeing in and about the city ; and afterward engaging a native pilot to take us in the motor launch to the Sunderbunds , where , braving malaria , snakes , and all other perils , we spent a week shooting , the four of us who constituted the party bagging seven tigers between us , to say nothing of other and less formidable game .