nearly midnight
Thus the fact was still unknown , and weighed on Roger 's mind as a guilty concealment , an oppressive secret . What if any found it out ? For immediate safety -- the evening after his memorable first fifteen hours of joy -- he buried the crock deeply in a hole in his garden , filling all up hard with stones and brick-bats ; and when he had smoothed it straight and workmanlike , remembered that he surely had n't kept out enough to last him ; so up it had to come again -- five more taken out , and the crock was restored to its unquiet grave . Scarcely had he done this , than it became dark , and he began to fancy some one might have seen him hide it ; those low mean tramps -LRB- never before had he refused the wretched wayfarers his sympathy -RRB- were always sneaking about , and would come and dig it up in the night : so he went out in the dark and the rain , got at it with infinite trouble and a broken pickaxe , and exultingly brought the crock in-doors ; where he buried it a third time , more securely , underneath the grouted floor , close beside the fire in the chimney-corner : it was now nearly midnight , and he went to bed . Hardly had he tumbled in , after pulling on a nightcap of the flagon , than the dread idea overtook him that his treasure might be melted ! Was there ever such a fool as he ? Well , well , to think he could fling his purse on the fire !