seven o'clock
The other guns , the broadsides , were loaded at the same time . But just now Paul Vapoor was the most important man on board , and he was rapidly making himself felt in the increasing speed of the Bellevite . Captain Breaker estimated that the steamer which had just come out of port was all of five miles ahead . It was only seven o'clock in the early darkness of this latitude . Whether the chase was the Killbright or not , it was impossible to make out in the darkness . If it was the Killbright , Captain Passford 's correspondent wrote that she was capable of making twenty knots an hour , as she had been built more for speed than anything else , though she could hardly be a profitable commercial venture . But even accepting this speed as the difficulty to be overcome , the Bellevite would probably overhaul her in two or three hours .