midnight
` Come , Master Block , ' I said , ` there is time enough before May Day to think what we shall do , so let us take a cup of tea , and after that I will play you a game of backgammon . ' But he still remained cast down , and would say nothing ; and as chance would have it , though I wished to let him win at backgammon , that so , perhaps , he might get cheered , yet do what I would that night I could not lose . So as his luck grew worse his moodiness increased , and at last he shut the board with a bang , saying , in reference to that motto that ran round its edge , ` Life is like a game of hazard , and surely none ever flung worse throws , or made so little of them as I. ' Let my lamp at midnight hour Be seen in some high lonely tower -- _ Milton _ Maskew got ugly looks from the men , and sour words from the wives , as he went up through the village that afternoon , for all knew what he had done , and for many days after the auction he durst not show his face abroad . Yet Damen of Ringstave and some others of the landers ' men , who made it their business to keep an eye upon him , said that he had been twice to Weymouth of evenings , and held converse there with Mr. Luckham of the Excise , and with Captain Henning , who commanded the troopers then in quarters on the Nothe . And by degrees it got about , but how I do not know , that he had persuaded the Revenue to strike hard at the smugglers , and that a strong posse was to be held in readiness to take the landers in the act the next time they should try to run a cargo . Why Maskew should so put himself about to help the Revenue I can not tell , nor did anyone ever certainly find out ; but some said 't was out of sheer wantonness , and a desire to hurt his neighbours ; and others , that he saw what an apt place this was for landing cargoes , and wished first to make a brave show of zeal for the Excise , and afterwards to get the whole of the contraband trade into his own hands .