an hour after midday
replied the sailor , `` I am not quite conjuror enough for that ; we must come down to eggs in the shell , my boy , and I will undertake to despatch the hardest ! '' Pencroft and Herbert attentively examined the cavities in the granite , and they really found eggs in some of the hollows . A few dozen being collected , were packed in the sailor 's handkerchief , and as the time when the tide would be full was approaching , Pencroft and Herbert began to redescend towards the watercourse . When they arrived there , it was an hour after midday . The tide had already turned . They must now avail themselves of the ebb to take the wood to the mouth . Pencroft did not intend to let the raft go away in the current without guidance , neither did he mean to embark on it himself to steer it .