about three o'clock
An ancient and luxuriant hedge of Cherokee-rose started from this tree and stretched toward the northwest across the level country , until it merged into the green confusion of gardened homes in the vicinity of Bayou St. Jean , or , by night , into the common obscurity of a starlit perspective . When an unclouded moon shone upon it , it cast a shadow as black as velvet . Under this fig-tree , some three hours later than that at which Honoré bade Joseph good-night , a man was stooping down and covering something with the broad , fallen leaves . `` The moon will rise about three o'clock , '' thought he . `` That , the hour of universal slumber , will be , by all odds , the time most likely to bring developments . '' He was the same person who had spent the most of the day in a blacksmith 's shop in St. Louis street , superintending a piece of smithing . Now that he seemed to have got the thing well hid , he turned to the base of the tree and tried the security of some attachment .