one in
the morning
For a few hours the fish appeared again , and we caught a great many of them , and stored them away in an empty barrel . This addition to our stock of provisions makes us hope that food , at least , will not fail us . Usually the nights in the tropics are cool , but to-day , as the evening drew on , the wonted freshness did not return , but the air remained stifling and oppressive , while heavy masses of vapor hung over the water . There was no moonlight ; there would be a new moon at half-past one in the morning , but the night was singularly dark , except for dazzling flashes of summer lightning that from time to time illuminated the horizon far and wide . There was , however , no answering roll of thunder , and the silence of the atmosphere seemed almost awful . For a couple of hours , in the vain hope of catching a breath of air , Miss Herbey , Andre Letourneur , and I , sat watching the imposing struggle of the electric vapors . The clouds appeared like embattled turrets crested with flame , and the very sailors , coarse-minded men as they were , seemed struck with the grandeur of the spectacle , and regarded attentively , though with an anxious eye , the preliminary tokens of a coming storm .