half past eleven
The Tartars were indeed there , finishing their work . From this point , they occupied both banks beyond Irkutsk . The fugitives had by this time reached the dangerous part of their voyage , and they were still twenty miles from the capital . It was now half past eleven . The raft continued to glide on amongst the ice , with which it was quite mingled , but gleams of light sometimes fell upon it . The fugitives stretched on the platform did not permit themselves to make a movement by which they might be betrayed . The conflagration was going on with frightful rapidity .