midnight
`` A whole schooner of detectives from Sydney , '' says I. `` They say they 're buying guano islands , but there 's already five hundred pounds out for you , dead or alive . '' His great fat hand began to shake on the trap . `` Never you mind , Mr. Smith , '' I says reassuring . `` Tom will be due here at midnight , and then we 'll run you up your tree . '' But that did n't seem to soothe him any , and he quavered out he would be better where he was . But I said they 'd rummage the whole island upside down before they were done , and all he had to do was to lay low , not worry , and let me and Tom handle the thing for him . He reached down his hand through the trap , and I shook it , he saying , `` God bless you , Bill -- God bless you ! ''