twelve o'clock
Directly after twilight set in Phil Adams stole down to the wharf and fixed the fuses to the guns , laying a train of powder from the principal fuse to the fence , through a chink of which I was to drop the match at midnight . At ten o'clock Rivermouth goes to bed . At eleven o'clock Rivermouth is as quiet as a country churchyard . At twelve o'clock there is nothing left with which to compare the stillness that broods over the little seaport . In the midst of this stillness I arose and glided out of the house like a phantom bent on an evil errand ; like a phantom . I flitted through the silent street , hardly drawing breath until I knelt down beside the fence at the appointed place . Pausing a moment for my heart to stop thumping , I lighted the match and shielded it with both hands until it was well under way , and then dropped the blazing splinter on the slender thread of gunpowder .