nine o'clock
For two hours after sunset it had all been silent and brooding , and then two figures appeared on the bank of the great river . A canoe was softly and hastily pushed out from its hidden shelter under the overhanging bank , and was noiselessly paddled out to midstream , dropping down the current meanwhile . It was Jenny Long and the man who must get to Bindon . They had waited till nine o'clock , when the moon was high and full , to venture forth . Then Dingley had dropped from her bedroom window , had joined her under the trees , and they had sped away , while the man 's hunters , who had come suddenly , and before Jenny could get him away into the woods , were carousing inside . These had tracked their man back to Tom Sanger 's house , and at first they were incredulous that Jenny and her uncle had not seen him . They had prepared to search the house , and one had laid his finger on the latch of her bedroom door ; but she had flared out with such anger that , mindful of the supper she had already begun to prepare for them , they had desisted , and the whiskey-jug which the old man brought out distracted their attention .