eight o'clock
roared O'Hara , his raised lids laying nude the debauchery of those jaundiced juicy balls . `` Be it so , Admiral Donald '' -- the Treasurer bowed : `` but on the understanding that I formally protest against the irregularity , and report it to the High Chancellor '' . He retired , and in half an hour returned with two clerks who bore books , himself a carpet-bag containing in cash-boxes £ 850,000 , paper and gold , which he deposited on the Admiral 's _ bureau _ , and , after again protesting before the clerks , went away . Not far off by now were some of the other six fort-yachts , converging with their 200 upon the _ Mahomet _ , and as the Admiral had no intention of being put into irons as a lunatic in his own fort , at eight o'clock he stole from his apartments , dressed now , not in uniform , but in priest 's robes and a voluminous cloak , bearing in one hand the bag , in the other a key . Those lower depths of the _ Mahomet _ were an utter solitude , lit with rare rays ; yet the Admiral journeyed through and up peering , skulking , pausing , hurrying , and , if by chance a light caught his face , it showed a horror of convulsive flesh , his body a mass of trembling , like jelly . Now , the forts had been built to fight ; and -LRB- since nothing is impossible -RRB- , if they fought , they might fall into an enemy 's hand : to obviate which , there was in a little room on the third floor a handle which opened by hydraulics a door in the fort 's side on the fifth floor below , the existence of this room being unknown save to each Admiral and to four of his lieutenants , and its key kept in a spot known to these . This key O'Hara now had in hand ; and as he pushed it into the lock , his jaw jabbered like a baboon 's .