about nine o'clock at
night
I 'm a peaceable man , and aboard they call me Billy the Lamb ; but , by the Lord Harry , if I catch you sneaking about , or trying to find out where I and this noble gentleman be agoing , I 'm blest if I do n't split your skull in two with this here speaking-trumpet . '' And so saying the Captain produced a very long tin tube , such as Mariners carry to make their voices heard at a distance at sea , but which they generally have aboard , and do not carry with them in their walks . The Bailiffs were sensible men , and forbore to intermeddle with us any more . So we marched out of the House , it being now about nine o'clock at night ; and , upon my word , from that moment to this , I never set eyes upon Madam Taffetas , or Dangerous , or Blokes , -- for the Sea Captain 's name , he afterwards told me , was Blokes , -- or whatever her real name was . It is very certain that she used me most scandalously , and cruelly betrayed the trusting confidence of one that was not only a Bachelor , but an Orphan . Captain Blokes was a strange character . We had a grand Carouse that night , he paying the Shot like a gentleman ; and over our flowing Bowls , he told me that he had long had suspicions of his wife 's real character ; and was , indeed , in possession of evidence -LRB- though he had kept it secret -RRB- to prove that she had given herself in marriage to another man before she had wedded him .