midnight
They gained the cabin without having been seen so far as they knew . Of the hundreds of men sleeping within a furlong 's distance , not one dreamed of a discovery which was to draw the attention of the whole colony to Bendigo . But they had not wholly escaped observation . One pair of eyes had detected them in their midnight walk . The tramp , who has already been introduced to the reader , had spent the evening at the gambling house , having come into possession , during the day , of a small sum of money , given him by a compassionate miner . He had risked it , and for a time been successful , so that at the end of an hour he might have left off with twenty pounds . But the fatal fascination of the game drew him on till all his winnings melted away , and he left the cabin at midnight without a penny in his pocket , so far as he knew .