eleven o'clock
I am going out now on an expedition which may reveal many things , if I succeed . If I fail , why , then you must notify the secret service men and look for me in some of the pools about Gatun . '' The clerk finally consented to this arrangement , and in ten minutes Ned and his chums were speeding toward Gatun on a railroad motor car . At eleven o'clock that night the workmen employed at the locks , the spillway , and the barrier of the Gatun dam found that their lights were not working satisfactorily and sent word back to the electric department that something was amiss . The electric department sent word back to the men in the excavations that the lights were all right so far as they were concerned , that they were doing their full duty efficiently , and that the men with the shovels , the dynamite and the dump cars might go chase themselves . This expression of fact and permission did not make it any lighter at the workings , but the men kept on , in the intermittent showers of illumination , and grumbled while they excavated and piled in the concrete . At last , just before midnight , the incandescence did not come back to the globes , and the men gathered in groups to discuss the matter and express heated opinions of the efficiency of the men in charge of the lighting plant .