eight
o’clock
`` Voostenwalbert Schimmelpenninck ! '' No answer . `` Ah , the little rogue has been kept at home ! Now , boys , it 's just eight o'clock -- glorious weather , and the Y is as firm as a rock . We 'll be at Amsterdam in thirty minutes . One , two , three START ! '' True enough , in less than half an hour they had crossed a dike of solid masonry and were in the very heart of the great metropolis of the Netherlands -- a walled city of ninety-five islands and nearly two hundred bridges .