midnight
But they little knew the character of Cavendish ; he was not the man to abandon any enterprise upon which he had once entered . It was a principle of his to inflict the greatest possible amount of damage on the enemy that he could ; and meanwhile the town of La Guayra still remained uninjured . Therefore -- so ran his argument -- La Guayra must be sacked and laid in ashes before he could consider his duty as thoroughly finished . As a consequence , shortly after midnight the boats of the fleet stole silently out from under the sheltering lee of their parent vessels , and made swiftly and noiselessly , with muffled oars , for the town . Roger and Harry , ready as ever for an adventure , no matter how dangerous it might be , were in the boats , and keeping a sharp lookout ahead ; for by this time there were but few lights to guide them , the whole city being wrapped in darkness . Everything ahead of and around them was perfectly quiet ; not a sound disturbed the still night air save only the scarcely audible ripple of water under the boats ' bows as they swept gently shoreward . Presently there was a grating of pebbles under their keels , and the boats stopped dead .