half after twelve o’clock
They were eyeing , from behind a huge flagon of unpaid-for `` humming-stuff , '' the portentous words , `` No Chalk , '' which to their indignation and astonishment were scored over the doorway by means of that very mineral whose presence they purported to deny . Not that the gift of decyphering written characters -- a gift among the commonalty of that day considered little less cabalistical than the art of inditing -- could , in strict justice , have been laid to the charge of either disciple of the sea ; but there was , to say the truth , a certain twist in the formation of the letters -- an indescribable lee-lurch about the whole -- which foreboded , in the opinion of both seamen , a long run of dirty weather ; and determined them at once , in the allegorical words of Legs himself , to `` pump ship , clew up all sail , and scud before the wind . '' Having accordingly disposed of what remained of the ale , and looped up the points of their short doublets , they finally made a bolt for the street . Although Tarpaulin rolled twice into the fire-place , mistaking it for the door , yet their escape was at length happily effected -- and half after twelve o'clock found our heroes ripe for mischief , and running for life down a dark alley in the direction of St. Andrew 's Stair , hotly pursued by the landlady of the `` Jolly Tar . '' At the epoch of this eventful tale , and periodically , for many years before and after , all England , but more especially the metropolis , resounded with the fearful cry of `` Plague ! '' The city was in a great measure depopulated -- and in those horrible regions , in the vicinity of the Thames , where amid the dark , narrow , and filthy lanes and alleys , the Demon of Disease was supposed to have had his nativity , Awe , Terror , and Superstition were alone to be found stalking abroad . By authority of the king such districts were placed under ban , and all persons forbidden , under pain of death , to intrude upon their dismal solitude .