about twelve o'clock
It was just eight o'clock when the guard had passed through the gate . He had started half an hour later . He swam what seemed to him a very long time , but he had no means of telling how the time passed . When he thought it must be somewhere about twelve o'clock , he made for the shore . He was sure that , by this time , he must be at least three miles beyond the fort ; and as the Spanish camps lay principally near San Roque , at the head of the bay , and there were no tents anywhere by the seashore , he felt sure that he could land , now , without the slightest danger . Here , then , he waded ashore , stripped , tied his clothes in a bundle , waded a short distance back again , and dropped them in the sea . Then he returned , took up the bag , and carried it up the sandy beach .