about eight o'clock
He had been up to Windy Gap and heard that Miss Anstruther had not been seen there . And then coming back , he lost his way -- went clean off the road in the dark , and then could n't find it again for ever so long . He might have gone over the cliffs himself , Miss Maud . Then he met a coastguardsman and told him he was out looking for a young lady and asked him if he had seen her , and then the man said that about eight o'clock a young lady had fallen over the cliffs , just beyond the lighthouse , and had been picked up in a dying condition on the rocks below . They had taken her along the beach until they got to the end of the sea-wall , and then they had telephoned for an ambulance , and she was taken to the hospital , for , of course , they did n't know her name or where she lived then . '' At that moment the three boys stumbled wearily into the hall rubbing their eyes . `` I say , we 're off to bed , '' said Noel .