nine o'clock
Looking down on the dimly lighted ways one seemed to see a threading maze of brunette ghosts tangled with a procession of insane fireflies . In some houses the thrumming of lugubrious guitars added to the depression of the _ triste _ night . Giant tree-frogs rattled in the foliage as loudly as the end man 's `` bones '' in a minstrel troupe . By nine o'clock the streets were almost deserted . Nor at the consulate was there often a change of bill . Keogh would come there nightly , for Coralio 's one cool place was the little seaward porch of that official residence . The brandy would be kept moving ; and before midnight sentiment would begin to stir in the heart of the self-exiled consul .