midnight
`` White marster along schooner plenty friend along me too much . Just now he stop 'm along _ Makambo _ . Me take 'm dog along him along _ Makambo _ . '' There was no further conversation from the ancient , and though he lived long years after , he never mentioned the midnight passenger in the canoe who carried Michael away with him . When he saw and heard the confusion and uproar on the beach later that night when Captain Kellar turned Tulagi upside-down in his search for Michael , the old one-legged one remained discreetly silent . Who was he to seek trouble with the strange ones , the white masters who came and went and roved and ruled ? In this the ancient was in nowise unlike the rest of his dark-skinned Melanesian race .