eleven o'clock
If he did not , I could get the rifles , and convey them across the bay to the other fellows ; if he did , all hope were gone . At seven o'clock I dined as usual , no one coming to me ; and at eight the negro had cleared away the repast , and had left me for the night . I closed my own door , and for three hours or more I paced my chamber , the fever of anticipation and of design burning me as with fire . It must have been eleven o'clock when at last I put out my light , and listened in the passage ; yet heard nothing , not even the echo of a distant sound . Of the doors about , the majority were closed ; but the doctor 's was open , and his room was in darkness , so that I began to fear that he was closeted with Black ; and I went very stealthily , having left my boots behind me , to the man 's study , and found that door ajar as it had been when I had come to it some hours before . This discovery set me almost drunk with hope . There was no doubt that both the men were away from their rooms , so that my time could not have been better chosen ; and , more fearless in their absence , I pushed the door wide open and began to feel my way in the blinding dark .