nine o'clock
You mark my words '' -- Sir Harry rose , buttoned his coat and shook his riding-crop prophetically -- `` he 's brewing up for something . There 'll be the devil of a flare-up before he has done . '' It came with the Midsummer bonfires . At nine o'clock on St. John 's Eve , Mr. Raymond read prayers in the church . It was his rule to celebrate thus the vigils of all saints in the English calendar and some few Cornish saints besides ; and he regularly announced these services on the preceding Sundays : but no parishioner dreamed of attending them . To-night , as usual , he and Taffy had prayed alone : and the lad was standing after service at the church door , with his surplice on his arm -LRB- for he always wore a surplice and read the lessons on these vigils -RRB- , when the flame of the first bonfire shot up from the headland over Innis village . Almost on the moment , a flame answered it from the point where the lighthouse stood ; and , within ten minutes , the horizon of the towans was cressetted with these beacon-fires : surely -LRB- thought Taffy -RRB- with many more than usual .