midnight
`` Fire ! '' cried the mate . Jerry applied the poker to the gun , and the scene which we have described in a former chapter was re-enacted ; -- the blinding flash , the roar , and the curved line of light across the black sky ; but there was no occasion that night to repeat the signals . Everywhere along the coast the salvors of life and property were on the alert -- many of them already in action , out battling in midnight darkness with the raging sea . The signal was at once replied to from Ramsgate . Truly it was a dreadful night ; one of those tremendous hurricanes which visit our shores three or four times it may be in a century , seeming to shake the world to its foundations , and to proclaim with unwonted significance the dread power of Him who created and curbs the forces of nature . But the human beings who were involved in the perils of that night had scant leisure , and little inclination , perchance , to contemplate its sublimity .