nine o'clock
We were fain to take possession of our treasures at once , but the old gentleman forbade it , and made us put them all back in the hamper and wait till the morning . So we went to bed early , hoping thereby , I suppose , to hasten the morning . But instead of that , the hours dragged past as though the night would never go . We heard nine o'clock strike , and ten , and eleven . We were n't in the humour for sleeping , and told one another all the stories we knew -- finishing up , of course , with the wreck of the `` Wolf King . '' Then we lay for a long time listening to the storm outside , which seemed to get wilder and wilder as the night dragged on . The tide , which had been only just turned when we went to bed , sounded now close under the house , and the thunder of the great waves as they broke on the sand seemed to make the very earth vibrate .