about midnight
Thunder was rolling in the sky . Lightning flashed among the mountain-peaks . Rain , the first that had descended for many days , fell in fitful showers . It must have seemed to the women either that the elements sympathised with them , or that the extreme darkness was favourable to the execution of their plan , for about midnight one of them rose from her bed , and crept noiselessly to the corner of her hut , where she had seen Quintal deposit a loaded musket the previous day . Possessing herself of the weapon , she went straight to the widow of Fletcher Christian , and wakened her . She rose , somewhat reluctantly , and followed the woman , whose face was concealed in a kerchief of native cloth . The two then went cautiously to another hat , where two of the wives of the murdered Otaheitans awaited them , the one with a long knife , the other with an axe in her hand .