midnight
It is just half-past eleven ; if you are a punctual man , as Jo Bumpus led me to believe , I will try your metal in half-an-hour , and have you back in your cage before one o'clock ! What say you to that , Sambo ? '' The faithful native opened his huge mouth wide and shut his eyes , thereby indicating that he laughed , but he said nothing , bad , good , or indifferent , to his master 's facetious observation . The other natives also grinned in a quiet but particularly knowing manner , after which the whole party relapsed into profound silence and kept their midnight watch with exemplary patience and eager expectation . At this same hour the pirate captain was seated in his cell on the edge of the low bedstead , with his elbows resting on his knees and his face buried in his hands . The cell was profoundly dark -- so dark that the figure of the prisoner could scarcely be distinguished . Gascoyne did not move for many minutes , but once or twice a deep sigh escaped him , shewing that although his body was at rest , his thoughts were busy .