midnight
On the night of the 1st of March , 1897 , two trains were scheduled to leave the Union Station at Jacksonville at exactly the same minute , and they left exactly on time . As never before in the history of any Southern railroad has this miracle occurred , it shows that when Dame Fortune gets on the job she is omnipotent . She placed David on the train to Miami as the train he wanted drew out for Tampa , and an hour later , when the conductor looked at David 's ticket , he pulled the bell-cord and dumped David over the side into the heart of a pine forest . If he walked back along the track for one mile , the conductor reassured him , he would find a flag station where at midnight he could flag a train going north . In an hour it would deliver him safely in Jacksonville . There was a moon , but for the greater part of the time it was hidden by fitful , hurrying clouds , and , as David stumbled forward , at one moment he would see the rails like streaks of silver , and the next would be encompassed in a complete and bewildering darkness . He made his way from tie to tie only by feeling with his foot .