one o'clock
He stole up and peered through the engine-house window at the driver 's clock , and saw with dull amazement that it was not yet half-past twelve . It had taken him little over half an hour to reach Harry Hardy and return -- it seemed to him that he had been toiling for many hours . He crept in between the long stacks of firewood , made a bed on the soft bark , and waited . The first night shift of the week did not start work till one o'clock on Monday morning , and the mine was silent save for the slow puffing of the pumping engine and the deliberate rumbling of the bob . Lying on his stomach on the bark , the boy fixed his eyes upon the mine and suffered through the slow dragging minutes . He wept incessantly , and his teeth chattered , although the night was warm . A new fear had taken possession of him , a fear that Harry Hardy , if alive , would perhaps move and roll down the incline into the water again before the miners reached him .