midnight
They therefore attempted it by night , but the Altrurians were prepared for them with the flexible steel nets which are their only means of defence , and half a dozen sailors were taken in one . When they attempted to break out , and their shipmates attempted to break in to free them , a light current of electricity was sent through the wires and the thing was done . Those who were rescued -- the Altrurians will not say captured -- had hoes put into their hands the next morning , and were led into the fields and set to work , after a generous breakfast of coffee , bread , and mushrooms . The chickens they had killed in their midnight expedition were buried , and those which they had not killed lost no time in beginning to lay eggs for the sustenance of the reformed castaways . As an extra precaution with the `` rescued , '' when they were put to work , each of them with a kind of shirt of mail , worn over his coat , which could easily be electrized by a metallic filament connecting with the communal dynamo , and under these conditions they each did a full day 's work during the Obligatories . As the short commons grew shorter and shorter , both meat and drink , at Camp Famine , and the campers found it was useless to attempt thieving from the Altrurians , they had tried begging from the owners in their large tent , but they were told that the provisions were giving out there , too , and there was nothing for them . When they insisted the servants of the owners had threatened them with revolvers , and the sailors , who had nothing but their knives , preferred to attempt living on the country .