seven o'clock
Of necessity the ward became quiet very soon after night set in . The men talked and smoked for a short time , but in an hour after the candle was lit the ward was generally perfectly quiet . Godfrey , working as he did indoors , was far less inclined for sleep than either the men who had been working in the forest or those who had been listlessly passing the day in enforced idleness , and he generally lay awake for a long time , either thinking of home and school-days , or in meditating over his plans for escape as soon as spring arrived , and he now determined to keep awake still longer . `` They are almost all asleep by seven o'clock , '' he said to himself . `` If any of those fellows intend to do any harm to Mikail they will probably do it by ten or eleven , there will be no motive in putting it off longer ; and indeed the ward is quieter then than it is later , for some of them when they wake light a pipe and have a smoke , and many do so early in the morning so as to have their smoke before going to work . '' Five evenings passed without anything happening , and Godfrey began to think that he had been needlessly anxious , and that Mikail must understand the ways of his own people better than he did . The sixth evening had also passed off quietly , and when Godfrey thought that it must be nearly twelve o'clock he was about to pull his blanket up over his ear and settle himself for sleep when he suddenly caught sight of a stooping figure coming along .