about midnight
However , that shot raised his bile , and instead of starting home to report my death , he said he would remain and enjoy it . My two experts arrived in the evening , and pretty well fagged , for they had traveled double tides . They had pack-mules along , and had brought everything I needed -- tools , pump , lead pipe , Greek fire , sheaves of big rockets , roman candles , colored fire sprays , electric apparatus , and a lot of sundries -- everything necessary for the stateliest kind of a miracle . They got their supper and a nap , and about midnight we sallied out through a solitude so wholly vacant and complete that it quite overpassed the required conditions . We took possession of the well and its surroundings . My boys were experts in all sorts of things , from the stoning up of a well to the constructing of a mathematical instrument . An hour before sunrise we had that leak mended in ship-shape fashion , and the water began to rise .