twelve
o'clock
John gave the candle to the girl and began to go noiselessly downstairs . There was not a movement in the house now . Big Ben was striking . It was twelve o'clock . At the next moment John Storm was midway down , and had full view of the den . It was a washing cellar with a coal vault going out of it under the street . Some fifteen or twenty men , chiefly foreigners , were gathered about a large table covered with green baize , on which a small lamp was burning .