twelve o'clock
`` I do n't think so , '' I said . `` Yachts do not carry cargoes , and if they did they would n't land them in the middle of the night . '' I looked at my watch . It was almost twelve o'clock . Then another noise was added to the rattling of oars . A cart , unmistakably a cart , lumbered across the stones at the end of the pier . After a while this cart emerged from the black shadows of the houses and we could see it toiling up the hill which leads out of the town .