midnight
There was no reason why he should fear these men more than he feared Burke and Shirley . All of them were necessary to him , and he must trust them . Several times when he was crouched down in the interior of the mound , filling a bag with gold , he thought how easy it would be for one of the sailors to shoot him from above , and for them , or perhaps only one of them , to become the owner of all that treasure . But then , he could be shot in one place almost as well as in another , and if the negroes should be seized with the gold fever , and try to cut white throats at midnight , they would be more likely to attempt it after the treasure had been secured and the ship had sailed than now . In any case , nothing could be gained by making them feel that they were suspected and distrusted . Therefore it was that when , one day , Maka said to the captain that the little stones in the bags had begun to make his shoulder tender , the captain showed him how to fold an empty sack and put it between the bags and his back , and then also told him that what he carried was not stones , but lumps of gold . `` All yourn , cap'n ! ''