ten o'clock
When they knew by the breathing of the miners nearest them that they were asleep , in low tones they began to talk . Browning was the first to speak . `` By Jove , Jim , '' he said , `` that cage story is too thin . It worked all right up to ten o'clock , for Mackay and Fair both came down and spent a good quarter of an hour in the end of the drift and kept tapping around with their hammers . I was mean enough to watch them on the sly and saw them both taking samples . If you keep awake , you will see John Mackay down here again by six o'clock in the morning , and you may make up your mind not to see any more daylight for three days or a week to come ; that is , if the drift keeps on improving . '' `` I believe it , Jack , '' said Sedgwick ; `` did you notice that the last blast left nearly the whole face of the drift in ore ?