about four o'clock in the afternoon
After that I breathed more freely , for I felt that the treasure could not be discovered without a long and careful search , the opportunities for which were not likely to occur . Although my interview with Captain Leach might seem of small and inconsiderable moment to any one coolly reading this narrative in the privacy of his closet , yet coming to me as it did upon the heels of my other interview with Mr. Longways , it cast me into such disquietude of spirit as I had not felt for a long time . I would have heaved anchor and away , without losing one single minute of delay , had it been possible for me to have done so ; but not a breath of air was stirring , and there was nothing for it but to ride at anchor where we were , though , what with the heat and delay , it was all that I could do not to chafe myself into a fume of impatience . So passed the day until about four o'clock in the afternoon , when there happened a certain thing that , had thunder and lightning burst from a clear sky , it could not have amazed me more . I being in my cabin at the time , comes Mr. Langely , my first mate , with the strange news that the lookout had sighted a vessel over the point of land to the southward . I could hardly accredit what he said , for , as above stated , not a breath of air was going . I hurried out of my cabin and upon deck , where I found Mr. White , the second mate , standing at the port side of the ship , with a glass in his hand directed a few points west of south , and over a spit of land which ran out in the channel towards that quarter , at which place the cape was covered by a mightily thick growth of scrub-bushes , with here and there a tall palm-tree rising from the midst of the thickets .