noon
Now that would not suit me at all , for since I had made certain that she was a slaver , I was determined to capture her as soon as the weather should moderate sufficiently to allow us to do so . Therefore , when she had drifted about half a mile to leeward of us , I gave instructions that the helm should be eased up as often as opportunity permitted . The result of this was that we contrived to make our own lee drift amount to about the same as hers , thus maintaining no more than a bare half-mile of water between us . Shortly after noon the gale broke , the sky quite suddenly cleared , and an hour later we were able to set the fore-staysail and shake a reef out of the foresail in order to steady the ship . Although the sea was still running too high to permit of our bearing up and running down to the brigantine , we managed to edge down a little nearer to her , so that by eight bells in the afternoon watch we had reduced the distance to something like the eighth part of a mile . At this distance we were able to maintain a pretty close watch upon the craft , and half an hour later we detected signs indicative of a determination on the part of her crew to make sail . Evidently they distrusted us as a neighbour , and were desirous of putting a little more water between us and themselves .