midnight
`` Bird ? Surely you 're joking , sir , '' laughed the second mate , his round face glowing with a jolly grin . `` But I 'll see that it 's attended to . '' Barry went below , looked in on Little , who slept like an infant now , then sat in his own stateroom smoking and feasting his eyes on the precious photograph in his chronometer case until he heard a seaman knock at the chief mate 's door to call him at midnight . When the seaman had gone on deck , the skipper stepped over to Rolfe 's berth . `` Mr. Rolfe , '' he said , `` did you hold any communication with the shore before Mr. Little and I came on board ? '' `` Ye-ow-ow ! ''