eight o'clock
I 'll take the Bible , which 'll put me as straight as the mail , and that 's the last word I 've got to say . '' The night fell extraordinary dark , clouds coming up with sundown and overspreading all ; not a star showed ; there was only an end of a moon , and that not due before the small hours . Round the village , what with the lights and the fires in the open houses , and the torches of many fishers moving on the reef , it kept as gay as an illumination ; but the sea and the mountains and woods were all clean gone . I suppose it might be eight o'clock when I took the road , laden like a donkey . First there was that Bible , a book as big as your head , which I had let myself in for by my own tomfoolery . Then there was my gun , and knife , and lantern , and patent matches , all necessary . And then there was the real plant of the affair in hand , a mortal weight of gunpowder , a pair of dynamite fishing bombs , and two or three pieces of slow match that I had hauled out of the tin cases and spliced together the best way I could ; for the match was only trade stuff , and a man would be crazy that trusted it .