about midnight
`` Once a ship was anchored in the harbor , ready to sail for England , with several thousand ounces of gold on board . She was to leave the next forenoon , and was to receive her crew and passengers early in the morning . There were only some ten or twelve persons on board . Along about midnight a boat came to the side of the ship , and , when hailed by the lookout , the answer was given that two passengers were coming on board . Two men came up the side of the ship dressed like ordinary passengers , and without any suspicious appearance about them . `` While they were in conversation with the lookout and asking about the location of their rooms , they suddenly seized and bound him , and put a gag in his mouth to prevent his making an outcry . Then several other men came up the side of the ship very quickly , and one by one all on board were bound and gagged so quietly and speedily that they could not give the least alarm .