midnight
It seemed to him then some sound from below had played through the fabric of his dream . But nothing disturbed the usual calm , save the morning cry of distant parrots . Stooping , he moved through the scattered rocks , to survey the waters far and wide . There was nothing to be seen , in all that expanse , of the craft that had ridden near at midnight . All the round of the wall he made in this manner of caution . When he came at length above the blackened clearing , where for day after day he had toiled with fire and chisel , he gazed about the open space bewildered and incredulous . His half-finished boat was gone !