noon
`` The same to you , Mr. Carthew , '' retorted the lawyer , and rang for his clerk . So it befell that Norris , during what remained to him of arduous days in Sydney , saw not again the face of his legal adviser ; and he was already at sea , and land was out of sight , when Hadden brought him a Sydney paper , over which he had been dozing in the shadow of the galley , and showed him an advertisement : `` Mr. Norris Carthew is earnestly entreated to call without delay at the office of Mr. -- , where important intelligence awaits him . '' `` It must manage to wait for me for six months , '' said Norris lightly enough , but yet conscious of a pang of curiosity . Before noon , on the 26th November , there cleared from the port of Sydney the schooner _ Currency Lass _ . The owner , Norris Carthew , was on board in the somewhat unusual position of mate ; the master 's name purported to be William Kirkup ; the cook was a Hawaiian boy , Joseph Amalu ; and there were two hands before the mast , Thomas Hadden and Richard Hemstead , the latter chosen partly because of his humble character , partly because he had an odd-job-man 's handiness with tools . The _ Currency Lass _ was bound for the South Sea Islands , and first of all for Butaritari in the Gilberts , on a register ; but it was understood about the harbour that her cruise was more than half a pleasure trip . A friend of the late Grant Sanderson -LRB- of Auchentroon and Kilclarty -RRB- might have recognised in that tall-masted ship the transformed and rechristened _ Dream _ ; and the Lloyd 's surveyor , had the services of such a one been called in requisition , must have found abundant subject of remark .