midnight
`` The Governor 's a great man , '' said Archie . `` The greatest in the world ! '' Leary solemnly affirmed . Shortly before midnight Archie and Leary left the _ Arthur B. Grover _ and paddled cautiously toward the point fixed by the Governor for their rendezvous . They were fortified with a repeating rifle , a shotgun -LRB- this was Leary 's preference -RRB- and several packets of rockets for use in signaling the tug . It was the strangest of all expeditions , the more exciting from the fact that it was staged in the very heart of the country . For all that shore or water suggested of an encompassing civilization , the canoe driven by the taciturn Leary might have been the argosy of the first explorer of the inland seas .