midnight
`` Where were they now ? '' they asked , and were they being treated like poor honest men ? Shard quieted them by asking what they wished to do themselves and when no one had any better plan than going to the villagers and saying that they had been blown out of their course by a storm , Shard unfolded his scheme to them . Long ago he had heard how they drove carts with oxen in Africa , oxen were very numerous in these parts wherever there was any cultivation , and for this reason when the wind had begun to drop he had laid his course for the village : that night the moment it was dark they were to drive off fifty yoke of oxen ; by midnight they must all be yoked to the bows and then away they would go at a good round gallop . So fine a plan as this astonished the men and they all apologised for their want of faith in Shard , shaking hands with him every one and spitting on their hands before they did so in token of good will . The raid that night succeeded admirably , but ingenious as Shard was on land , and a past-master at sea , yet it must be admitted that lack of experience in this class of seamanship led him to make a mistake , a slight one it is true , and one that a little practice would have prevented altogether : the oxen could not gallop . Shard swore at them , threatened them with his pistol , said they should have no food , and all to no avail : that night and as long as they pulled the bad ship Desperate Lark they did one knot an hour and no more .