ten o'clock
So saying , and ere the hand of Abubeker could arrest him , he drew a poniard from his embroidered vest , and the heart-blood of the renegade spouted on the royal robes of the successor of Mahomet . * * * * * So grandly had James spooted this bloody story , that notwithstanding my sleepiness , his words whiles dirled through my marrow like quicksilver , and set all my flesh a grueing . In the middle of it , he was himself so worked up , that twice he pulled his Kilmarnock from his head , silk-napkin , bandage and all , and threw them down with a thump on the table , which once wellnigh capsized a candlestick . The porter and the stabbing , also , very nearly put me beside myself ; and I felt so queerish and eerie when I took my hat to wish him a good-night -- knowing that baith Nanse and Benjie would be neither to hold nor bind , it being now half-past ten o'clock -- that , had it not been for the shame of the thing , and that I remembered being one of the King 's gallant volunteers , I fear I would have asked James for the lend of his lantern , to show me down the dark close . The reader will thus perceive that the adventure of the killing-coat , stuck alike in the measurement and in the making by Tammie Bodkin , was destined , in the great current of human events , to form a prominent feature , not only in my own history , but in that of worthy James Batter . To me it might be considered as a passing breeze -- having been accustomed to see and suffer a vast deal ; but my friend , I fear much , will bear marks of it to his grave . Yet I can not blame myself with a safe conscience for James having fallen the victim to Cursecowl .