midnight
`` And you ? '' asked the boy . `` I jest started gettin ' the boat ready , '' the old keeper said , simply . `` It was ` way after midnight , reckon it was nearly one o'clock , an ' , if anything , the sea was wilder . An ' I felt nothin ' so cold afore in all my life . The women o ' Chocolay , they was out that night , bringin ' steamin mugs o ' coffee . There 's a deal o ' credit comin ' to them , too , the way I look at it . ''