ten o'clock
When all these points had been thought over and settled , the prisoners , found they could not put their plan into execution -- on that day , at all events -- for the `` Albatross , '' after leaving Gousta , had kept her southerly course , which took her over the North Sea , much to the consternation of the thousands of coasting craft engaged in the English , Dutch , French , and Belgian trade . Unless the snuff-box fell on the deck of one of these vessels there was every chance of its going to the bottom of the sea , and Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans were obliged to wait for a better opportunity . And , as we shall immediately see , an excellent chance was soon to be offered them . At ten o'clock that evening the `` Albatross '' reached the French coast near Dunkirk . The night was rather dark . For a moment they could see the lighthouse at Grisnez cross its electric beam with the lights from Dover on the other side of the strait . Then the `` Albatross '' flew over the French territory at a mean height of three thousand feet .