midnight
`` I think you are right , Mrs. Tracey . And here is my hand and solemn promise to do all in my power to retake the _ Mahina _ , for now I begin to suspect that your husband did indeed meet with foul play . '' -LSB- 1 -RSB- A _ foli _ is a huge mussel , with an edge as keen as that of a razor . Mrs. Tracey listened with the most intense interest to Barry 's account of his first meeting with Captain Rawlings , of the strange , mysterious midnight sailing of the _ Mahina _ from Sydney Harbour , and of the story of her husband 's suicide as related by the captain to his newly-engaged chief mate on the following day , when he came on deck and said that Tracey was dead . `` It may be that my poor husband did indeed take his own life , '' she said , `` but I do not believe it . '' `` Yet why should they -- Rawlings and the others -- have spared him so long ? '' inquired Barry .