about
midnight
I foresaw that there would be some fun when the first batch returned , but I did not dare to protest . I was desperately anxious to get past the Austrian frontier , for I had a half-notion we might be searched there , but Schenk took his _ Sylvesterabend _ business so seriously that I would have risked a row if I had tried to argue . The upshot was what I expected . We got the first batch aboard about midnight , blind to the world , and the others straggled in at all hours next morning . I stuck to the boat for obvious reasons , but next day it became too serious , and I had to go ashore with the captain to try and round up the stragglers . We got them all in but two , and I am inclined to think these two had never meant to come back . If I had a soft job like a river-boat I should n't be inclined to run away in the middle of Germany with the certainty that my best fate would be to be scooped up for the trenches , but your Frisian has no more imagination than a haddock .