nearly midnight
Francois and the old Cree Indian left them here , after being loaded down with presents , in addition to the wages promised them . The boys felt that they could afford to be generous , because , as they had saved the capitalists possibly a million or more dollars , the chances were that quite a tidy sum of money would be coming their way soon , from the grateful gentlemen forming the clique . The balance of their trip was uneventful , and one day they came in through the new Ambrose Channel and up past Liberty Island , making the steamer 's dock just as the sun was sinking behind the distant Jersey hills . That night there was the greatest talking match at the Bosworth home ever known , and it kept up until nearly midnight . Jimmy had such a share in the telling of their adventures that he was as hoarse as a crow afterwards , and could hardly raise his voice above a whisper . When the rest of the troop gathered in their lodge-room at the called meeting , and heard a detailed account of what had happened in that far-away land along the shores of the greatest bay in all the world , they united in declaring that Ned and his four chums had done the whole organization credit , in finding out the truth in connection with the supposed mine . It was voted that the adventure was by long odds one of the most thrilling that had ever come to any scouts belonging to the New York troop ; and some of the boys even went so far as to declare that in all probability it would never be equaled .