midnight
Should they be discovered before the work was complete , those who were free were to keep off the Peruvians while the remainder were set at liberty . It sounded rather a barbarous scheme , but Jim could think of no other which would be at all likely to be successful ; and he was by this time rendered altogether too hardened by privation and ill-treatment to feel very much pity for the callously brutal Peruvian guards . Besides , it was his life or theirs , and he had no difficulty in choosing . The young Englishman waited until midnight , in order to allow the soldiers to get well asleep , and then he silently nudged his companions to make sure that all were awake . They all were , -- very wide awake , too , -- and , after a few low-voiced instructions from Douglas , the little body of men began to crawl away through the darkness , taking the utmost care that there should be no clanking of chains to betray their movements . Forward on hands and knees they went , all moving together ; and they soon passed through the ranks of their comrades , who did not make a single movement while the gallant little band crawled past . Soon they had left the Chilian part of the encampment behind ; and a few minutes later , Jim , who was the leading man of the party , came abreast of the first Peruvian tent .