midnight
They had secured an order to go to a wealthy man 's summer `` cottage , '' as the great , handsome pile was called , there to make some flashlight photographs of some of the large , expensively furnished rooms . Time flew , and the owner of the cottage caused many delays by wishing furniture shifted about before the photographs were made . It was after eleven o'clock at night when the two submarine boys left the cottage to tramp back to Dunhaven . As they neared the village they heard the town clock striking midnight . That was the only sound they could hear besides the movement of their own feet . Dunhaven was wrapped in sound slumber . Their way led the boys close to Farnum 's boatyard .