midnight
Anything that looked like an adventure aroused Jack 's animation , and a few seconds after the idea had first taken hold of him he was making his way up a rather steep hillside , covered with rocks and bushes , toward the light . At last he reached a place where he could get a good look at the shining beacon . He hardly knew what he had expected to see , but somehow he felt a sort of sense of disappointment . The lantern stood by itself on a rock and the idea suggested itself to Jack that it might have been placed there as a beacon to guide the midnight visitors back when they had accomplished whatever they purposed doing . `` I 've a good mind to carry off their lantern , '' said Jack to himself ; `` if they put it there to guide them that would leave them in a fine fix and we could easily capture them . '' Once more , half involuntarily , his feet appeared to draw him toward the lantern . The next instant he had it in his grasp .