noon
`` Perhaps the blacks may never come again . Let 's hope not . '' `` Amen , '' said Panton , and then everything was forgotten in the business on hand , all trusting to the careful watch kept from the brig , and working like slaves to get the capstan fixed to the bars driven in between crevices in the bed rock , while stays were fixed to blocks of coral , which lay here and there as they had been swept by the earthquake wave . The consequence was , that by noon , when the great heat had produced exhaustion , the capstan had been moved three times , and , thanks to the level ground , the lugger had glided steadily nearly as many cables ' lengths nearer the sea . `` Do it ? '' cried the mate , suddenly , as they sat resting and waiting till the men had finished their mid-day meal . `` Of course we shall do it . ''