twelve o'clock
We 'll take him home , pay the ransom and make our get-away . '' We took him home that night . We got him to go by telling him that his father had bought a silver-mounted rifle and a pair of moccasins for him , and we were going to hunt bears the next day . It was just twelve o'clock when we knocked at Ebenezer 's front door . Just at the moment when I should have been abstracting the fifteen hundred dollars from the box under the tree , according to the original proposition , Bill was counting out two hundred and fifty dollars into Dorset 's hand . When the kid found out we were going to leave him at home he started up a howl like a calliope and fastened himself as tight as a leech to Bill 's leg . His father peeled him away gradually , like a porous plaster .