midnight
Alf Drew cautiously approached camp when he felt the pangs of hunger . The cigarette fiend must have been satisfied , for Tom and Harry had already gotten the meal . But Reade , without a word of rebuke to their supposed helper , allowed young Drew to help himself to all he wanted in the way of hot food and coffee . Bringing midnight two hours nearer -- that is to say , at ten o'clock , Tom and Harry , aided this time by Alf , built a large fire-pile in a gully at a safe distance from camp . The wood was saturated with oil , a powder flash laid , then Tom laid a fuse-train . Lighting the fuse , the three speedily decamped . Presently they saw the flames of the newly kindled fire shooting up through the trees .