ten o'clock
Lieutenant Reynolds was seated at his desk at department head-quarters about nine o'clock that morning when an orderly in light-battery dress dismounted at the banquette and came up the stairs three at a jump . `` Captain Cram 's compliments , sir , and this is immediate , '' he reported , as he held forth a note . Reynolds tore it open , read it hastily through , then said , `` Go and fetch me a cab quick as you can , '' and disappeared in the general 's room . Half an hour later he was spinning down the levee towards the French Market , and before ten o'clock was seated in the captain 's cabin of the big British steamer Ambassador , which had arrived at her moorings during the night . Cram and Kinsey were already there , and to them the skipper was telling his story . Off the Tortugas , just about as they had shaped their course for the Belize , they were hailed by the little steamer Tampa , bound from New Orleans to Havana . The sea was calm , and a boat put off from the Tampa and came alongside , and presently a gentleman was assisted aboard .