five minutes before eight
`` Come down any time after eight o'clock and we 'll put it in the water . '' Were Dick & Co. on hand the next morning ? Dan Dalzell was the last of the six boys to reach post outside the locked gate of the yard , and he was there no later than twenty-one minutes past seven . At five minutes before eight Hiram Driggs arrived , keys in hand . `` I see you 're on time , '' he smiled , unlocking the gate and throwing it open . `` Now come in and we 'll run your canoe out on the river float . '' Even in the dim light of the boathouse Dick & Co. could see the sides of the canoe glisten with their coating of pitch and oil that lay outside the bark .