noon
But they do say that was a pirate ; and that , instead of sitting on a plank , we should have been walking a plank by this time , had they rescued us . I 'm rather glad they did n't , though , after all -- things could n't be much worse than they are , could they , now ? -- There , I came very near falling , I declare ! '' The moans of the sick woman at my side became almost constant toward noon ; and she was obliged to surrender her infant wholly to my charge , for the hæmorrhage of the day before had returned , and she was fast drifting into unconsciousness . `` Water , water ! '' was the only intelligible cry that left her lips , and that we had to give was warm and brackish , from the occasional lapping of the sea against the barrels , into which it oozed insensibly . The sun shone down hot and brazen , from the lurid heavens , covered with filmy clouds , so equally overspreading it that a thin , gray veil seemed to interpose between us and its scorching rays , scarcely tempering them by its diaphanous medium .