two in the morning
The captain immediately reversed engines and put on full speed , but the luminous monster gained on us and played round the frigate with frightful rapidity . Its light would go out suddenly and reappear again on the other side of the vessel . It was clearly too great a risk to attack the thing in the dark , and by midnight it disappeared , dying out like a huge glow-worm . It appeared again , about five miles to the windward , at two in the morning , coming up to the surface as if to breathe , and it seemed as though the air rushed into its huge lungs like steam in the vast cylinders of a 2,000 horse-power engine . `` Hum ! '' said I. `` A whale with the strength of a cavalry regiment would be a pretty whale ! '' _ II .