midnight
`` Oily Dave paid him half a dollar to come , because he did n't feel like showing his face up here just yet . '' `` Why not ? '' demanded Jervis Ferrars . `` Stee said the ice at the river mouth did n't give way until after midnight , when it burst with a roar like cannon . When Oily Dave got to Seal Cove last night , the water reached to the shingles of his house ; so the old fellow rowed across to Stee 's hut and asked to be taken in for the night , because he was flooded out and the Englishman was drowned . '' `` But did n't Stee tell him that Mr. Ferrars was safe here with us ? '' asked Mrs. Burton .