midnight
But the _ Finola _ was kept continually in commission . Her voyages when there were no great people on board were longer , were never advertised , and were much more exciting . But no one suspected , or could have suspected , that a millionaire 's yacht , and it the temporary home of the leading members of the governing classes , could have been engaged in a secret trade , highly dangerous to the peace and security of the nation . It is difficult even now to imagine that after landing the Prime Minister and couple of bishops at Cowes the yacht should have started off to keep a midnight appointment with a disreputable tramp steamer in an unfrequented part of the North Sea ; that Bob Power , after making himself agreeable for a fortnight to Lady Moyne , should have sweated like a stevedore at the difficult job of transhipping a cargo in mid-ocean . I now reach the time when I myself came for the first time in touch with Conroy 's plans and had my first meeting with Gideon McNeice . I am an insignificant Irish peer , far from wealthy , with a taste for literature , and , I think , a moderate amount of benevolent feeling towards those of my fellow-men who do not annoy me in any way . I sold the estate , which had long before ceased to be in any real sense my property , immediately after the passing of the Land Act of 1903 .