three in the morning
`` All right ! '' said the first lieutenant ; `` let him stow himself away in the bow till the fighting begins . '' Accordingly Tom curled himself up by the gun . It was between two and three in the morning when the trees of the central island were made out ; they were not more than five hundred yards away . Presently from a projecting point , where a heavy mass could be made out , a cannon was fired . The shot flew overhead , but the effect was instantaneous . Shouts were heard on shore and the sound of oars in rowlocks .