half after eight
So there it was ! -- but _ I _ could n't help it . Tom and me was to sleep in the same room and bed ; so , being tired , we bid good night and went up to bed right after supper , and clumb out of the window and down the lightning-rod , and shoved for the town ; for I did n't believe anybody was going to give the king and the duke a hint , and so if I did n't hurry up and give them one they 'd get into trouble sure . On the road Tom he told me all about how it was reckoned I was murdered , and how pap disappeared pretty soon , and did n't come back no more , and what a stir there was when Jim run away ; and I told Tom all about our `` Royal Nonesuch '' rapscallions , and as much of the raft voyage as I had time to ; and as we struck into the town and up through the middle of it -- it was as much as half after eight then -- here comes a raging rush of people with torches , and an awful whooping and yelling , and banging tin pans and blowing horns ; and we jumped to one side to let them go by ; and as they went by I see they had the king and the duke astraddle of a rail -- that is , I knowed it _ was _ the king and the duke , though they was all over tar and feathers , and did n't look like nothing in the world that was human -- just looked like a couple of monstrous big soldier-plumes . Well , it made me sick to see it ; and I was sorry for them poor pitiful rascals , it seemed like I could n't ever feel any hardness against them any more in the world . It was a dreadful thing to see . Human beings _ can _ be awful cruel to one another .