midnight
The days and nights went on , and in the course of time the _ Miranda _ anchored in the harbor of Valparaiso ; and , when this happened , Inkspot determined that now would be his chance to go on shore and get a good drink of whiskey -- he had money enough for that . He could see the lights of El Puerto , or the Old Town , glittering and beckoning , and they did not appear to be very far off . It would be nothing for him to swim as far as that . Inkspot went off his watch at midnight , and he went into the water at fifty minutes to one . He wore nothing but a dark-gray shirt and a pair of thin trousers , and if any one had seen his head and shoulders , it is not likely , unless a good light had been turned on them , that they would have been supposed to be portions of a human form . Inkspot was very much at home in the water , and he could swim like a dog or a deer . But it was a long , long swim to those glittering and beckoning lights .