noon
We could sail about for a week , call at half a dozen different islands every day , and still have a lot of them left over . `` Can we get to Duck Island tonight ? '' asked Ed Mason . `` Not ` fore tomorrer noon . We 'll put in at Little Duck , tonight . '' We were slipping along now beside a big , three-masted schooner -- a coal schooner -- which was anchored in mid-stream . The crew must have been below at breakfast , for the decks were deserted except for one man .