noon
Outwardly , to the knowledge of the Claytons , all went on as before upon the little vessel ; but that there was an undertow leading them toward some unknown danger both felt , though they did not speak of it to each other . On the second day after the wounding of Black Michael , Clayton came on deck just in time to see the limp body of one of the crew being carried below by four of his fellows while the first mate , a heavy belaying pin in his hand , stood glowering at the little party of sullen sailors . Clayton asked no questions -- he did not need to -- and the following day , as the great lines of a British battleship grew out of the distant horizon , he half determined to demand that he and Lady Alice be put aboard her , for his fears were steadily increasing that nothing but harm could result from remaining on the lowering , sullen Fuwalda . Toward noon they were within speaking distance of the British vessel , but when Clayton had nearly decided to ask the captain to put them aboard her , the obvious ridiculousness of such a request became suddenly apparent . What reason could he give the officer commanding her majesty 's ship for desiring to go back in the direction from which he had just come ! What if he told them that two insubordinate seamen had been roughly handled by their officers ? They would but laugh in their sleeves and attribute his reason for wishing to leave the ship to but one thing -- cowardice .