ten o'clock
Cawda was still veiled , and Cawda was to give the signal for all the smaller fires . Pettybaw 's , I suppose , was counted as a flash in the pan , but not one of the hundred patriots climbing the mountain side would have acknowledged it ; to us the good name of the kingdom of Fife and the glory of the British Empire depended on Pettybaw fire . Some of us had misgivings , too , -- misgivings founded upon Miss Grieve 's dismal prophecies . She had agreed to put nine lighted candles in each of our cottage windows at ten o'clock , but had declined to go out of her kitchen to see a procession , hear a band , or look at a bonfire . She had had a sair sickenin ' day , an amount of work too wearifu ' for one person by her lane . She hoped that the bonfire wasna built o ' Mrs. Sinkler 's coals nor Mr. Macbrose 's kindlings , nor soaked with Mr. Cameron 's paraffine ; and she finished with the customary but irrelative and exasperating allusion to the exceedingly nice family with whom she had lived in Glasgy . And still we toiled upward , keeping our doubts to ourselves .