midnight
The woods , most probably , _ were _ full of eyes . In plain prose , we were almost certainly being watched . Unless -- unless , indeed , my bogus departure for Nassau had fooled Tobias as we had hoped . But , even so , with that lure of Calypso 's doubloon ever before him , it was too probable that he would not leave the neighbourhood without some further investigation -- `` an investigation , '' the `` King '' explained , `` which might well take the form of a midnight raid ; murdered in our beds , and so forth . '' That being so , being in fact almost a certainty -- the `` King '' spoke as though he would be a much disappointed man otherwise -- we must look to our garrison . After all , besides ourselves , we had but Samson and Erebus , and their dark brethren of doubtful courage , while Tobias probably had command of a round dozen of doughty desperadoes . On the whole , perhaps , he said , it might be best to avail ourselves of the crew of the _ Flamingo _ -- `` under cover of the dark , '' he repeated with a smile .