midnight
`` It would have been a mere bagatelle but for the Gap Gang cutting in on our line of retreat . That added interest , and made a bright little affair of what would otherwise have been a dull retirement . '' `` And how did the Gap Gang come to cut in ? '' `` Oh , that 's easily explained ... `` At midnight I went out to beat em up -- crept along under the cliff past Holy Well . When I got to Cow Gap , there were my friends lying on their backs in a bunch , snoring like so many sows , and the boat beached beneath em . I believe I could have killed the lot then and there , and nobody the wiser ; but I was n't going to soil my hands with the cold blood of those swine . So I just jumped into the boat , and got to work at once -- put my heel through her bottom , and was just tearing up a plank , when the noise wakes old Red Beard . ''