nine
o'clock
The two great fog-bells of the lighthouse were therefore set agoing , and they rang out their slow deep-toned peal all that day and all that night , as the bell of the Abbot of Aberbrothoc is said to have done in days of yore . That night Ruby was astonished , and then he was stunned ! First , as to his astonishment . While he was seated by the kitchen fire chatting with his friend the smith , sometime between nine o'clock and midnight , Dumsby summoned him to the lantern to `` help in catching to-morrow 's dinner ! '' Dove laughed at the summons , and they all went up . The first thing that caught Ruby 's eye at one of the window panes was the round visage of an owl , staring in with its two large eyes as if it had gone mad with amazement , and holding on to the iron frame with its claws . Presently its claws lost hold , and it fell off into outer darkness .