two hours after midnight
On the particular evening Stranleigh chose for his attempt , Jim Dean sat on the chair against the door . Jim 's jaw worked so much during the day , he talked so incessantly , emptying his mind of all it contained , that he was naturally exhausted when his turn for watching came . Each of the men slumbered more or less soundly at his post , but the confident Jim outdid them all , so Stranleigh selected him as the man destined to hold the empty bag . It was two hours after midnight when his lordship slipped down from his bunk . The fire had long since gone out , and the stone chimney was reasonably cool . The climbing of that ample flue presented no difficulty to an athletic young man who in his time had ascended the Matterhorn . The inside of the chimney offered to the amateur sweep walls of rough stone , which projected here and there , forming an effective , if unequal ladder .