noon
As soon as I spoke of these his brow cleared , he threw off his gloom , and spoke fluently and with evident knowledge of his subject , with the result that the meal which had begun so inauspiciously ended quite pleasantly . Nay , more than that , as soon as the cloth was drawn this extraordinary man opened the piano and , sitting down to it , played piece after piece , sang several songs , and finally invited me to sing , the result being that , on the whole , the evening passed with far less constraint than I had anticipated . The next morning , while Tourville was engaged in taking his sights for the longitude and working them out , he suddenly complained of feeling ill , sent for Leroy , gave him certain instructions , and then took to his bed . By noon it became evident that he was in for a smart attack of malarial fever , to which it appeared he was very subject ; and when I turned in that night the mate volunteered the information that he feared the skipper was going to be very ill . Tourville 's condition on the following morning amply justified Leroy 's foreboding ; he grew steadily worse , became delirious , and at length grew so violent that about mid-day the mate considered it necessary to remain with him constantly , lest in his madness he should rise from his bed and fling himself through the stern windows into the sea . One result of this was that I offered to take Leroy 's watch , from eight o'clock to midnight , an offer which was gratefully accepted ; but as we were running down before a fair wind there was nothing for me to do beyond maintaining a good look-out , and I thus found it unnecessary to give the crew any orders or to interfere with them in any way . For the next three days Tourville 's condition was such that the constant presence of some one in his cabin , night and day , to watch over him and guard against the possibility of his doing himself an injury , became an absolute necessity , and Leroy , the chief mate , and Thoreau , the boatswain , shared this duty between them .