midnight
Try your luck , and let me know , if you are not killed , how you succeed . '' Permission having been thus grudgingly obtained , Max and Bertram repaired to their quarters to work out their plans and to make the preparations for the adventures of the evening . Undeterred by any thought of the risk they would run , they worked away as happily as schoolboys . A little before midnight they left the camp and made their way cautiously across the open country toward the somewhat sluggish river that made the circuit of the city walls . Fortunately for them the night was dark , and a thick drizzle was falling , blotting out the landscape effectually , and making it extremely difficult to see more than a few yards ahead . Though they knew that for this reason the guards would in all probability be more on the alert than usual , they had the consolation of knowing that the chances were that , hidden by the mist , their presence would be less likely to be discovered than on other occasions . For some time past a certain portion of the wall had exercised a great fascination for Max .