about three in the morning
Meanwhile the whole house was in an uprore . The stranger was sitting handcufft at the door ; and miners , spinners , and weavers came crowding ; others flockt from the mills ; and all were shouting , all were staring with wonder at each other ; everybody wanted to tell his story , and nobody seemed to know what it was that had happened ; so that Edward and Conrad began with much perplexity and annoyance to question one after another , until the miner cried out with his thundering voice : `` Hold your jaws all of you . Not a soul shall speak another word , except he whom your young master shall ask . '' One-eyed Michael was standing near them , and , as Edward turned to him , he said : `` It may have been about three in the morning when I set off from the forge to deliver a message betimes at the smelting house up in the mountains . I was walking along the path through the wood , thinking no harm , save that when I got pretty near to the warehouse all the nightly robberies came across me which have been going on this many a long day there . ` I 'd give the world to catch the rogue , ' I said to myself , when all at once a gun went off . A gun !