eleven
o’clock
The guides and the one other traveller , a Mr. Graham , who had been at the inn , were gathered at the border of the Daubensee , entreating , almost ready to use force to get the poor mother home before the snow should efface the tracks , and render the return to Schwarenbach dangerous . Ever since the alarm had been given there had been a going about with lights , a shouting and seeking , all along the road where she had parted with her sons . It was impossible in the fog to leave the beaten track , and the traveller told her that rewards would be but temptations to suicide . Johnny had fortunately been so tired out that he had gone to bed soon after coming in , and had not been wakened by the alarm till eleven o'clock . Then , startled by the noises and lights , he had risen and made his way to his aunt . Substantial help he could not give -- even his German was halting , but he was her stay and help , and she would -- as she knew afterwards -- have been infinitely more desolate without him . And now , when all were persuading her to wait , as they said , till more aid could be sent for to Kandersteg , he knew as well as she did that it was but a kindly ruse to cover their despair , and was striving to insist that another effort in daylight should be made .