midnight before
If the Government sends you again , poking your long nose among my people , I 'll make a surgical case for you to examine at home at your leisure , I will . '' In order to divert his ill-humour , Flora inquired at what hour the ship sailed ? `` She must wait for that which never yet waited for mortal man -- wind and tide . It will be midnight before we get under weigh . '' Boreas always spoke in short sentences . He was a man of few words , rough , ready , and eccentrically blunt . Had his talents been proportioned to his obstinacy of will , he might have ruled over large communities , instead of acting the petty tyrant on the deck of his small craft .