noon
It was n't long after that the engine room was illuminated by Liane 's pretty ankles and Mr. Mussey was beginning to comprehend that there was in this world one woman at least who could take an intelligent interest in machinery . Mr. Collison succumbed without a struggle . True to the tradition of Southern chivalry , he ambled up to the block , laid his head upon it , and asked for the axe . Nor was he kept long waiting ... On the seventh day the course pricked on the chart placed the Sybarite 's position at noon as approximately in mid-Atlantic . Contemplating a prospect of seven days more of such emptiness , Lanyard 's very soul yawned . And nothing could induce Captain Monk to hasten the passage . Mr. Mussey asserted that his engines could at a pinch deliver twenty knots an hour ; yet day in and day out the Sybarite poked along at little better than half that speed .