eight o'clock
`` No , '' I continued , `` she is no man-o ' - war , although I see she shows a set of teeth ; but there are not many of them , they are all small pieces , and half of them may be quakers , for what we can tell to the contrary . She is a Spanish West Indiaman , I believe , bound , no doubt , to Cartagena , or some other port on the Main ; and she has probably come in through the Handkerchief , or Turks Islands Passage . Well , there does not seem to be much chance of the wind coming just yet , Henderson , so you had better get your head-pump rigged and muster your scrubbers ; meanwhile I will have my bath , as usual , and then get dressed , so as to be all ready by the time that the breeze comes . '' When eight o'clock and breakfast-time arrived there was no perceptible change in the aspect of the weather , which remained stark calm ; while the heavy pall of cloud that had shrouded the night sky had thinned away to a kind of dense haze in the midst of which the sun throbbed -- a great shapeless splotch of misty light that , notwithstanding its partial veiling , still contrived to impart a scorching quality to the breathless atmosphere . As I ascended to the deck after breakfast I found Pearce , the boatswain , whose watch it now was , apparently waiting for my reappearance . He held the schooner 's glass in his hand , and had evidently spent practically the whole time since eight bells in watching the stranger . `` I 've been thinkin ' , Mr Delamere , '' he began , `` how would it be to get the boats out and go after that chap ?