about twelve o'clock
`` I wonder how long I shall be a prisoner , '' he said aloud ; and he laughed , for he could see no difficulties now . Still they began to appear soon after , and the first one he mentally saw was the coming of Ram with his food . He must know the place thoroughly , as he had shown by the care with which he threaded his way among the loose stones and pillars , and if he came with his lanthorn and missed him , he might walk up there and find him at work . `` I 'll be careful , '' he said to himself ; and taking out his knife forcing himself to believe that it was about twelve o'clock each day that the lad came , and if so , as it was about six hours , as near as he could guess , since the basket was brought , he had about a couple of hours more daylight , then the long night and all the morning , before his gaoler would come again . He bitterly regretted now not having tried to time Ram 's visits , forgetting that it would have been impossible to do so without light , and , unable to restrain his impatience to the extent of waiting till he came again , and watching for night from then , he went to work to try and loosen a stone by the side of the crevice , and toiled away till at the end of what seemed to be two hours , the light through the crevice paled , grew dull , then dark , and for the first time for many days he knew that it was night . Cheered by his calculation being so far right , he worked and scraped out the mortar , satisfied even with getting away the tiniest scraps , feeling as he did that if he could only dislodge one stone he could bring up from below plenty of great and splinter-shaped pieces with which he could hammer , and take out the rest , or enough for his body to pass through . So light-hearted did he feel , as guiding the point of his knife by his fingers , he picked and scraped away , that he began to hum a tune over softly .