about midnight
Then Tom began hammering and clinching the soft copper nails as if he loved his work , and as soon as the sun went down started off to trudge across the moor to Rockabie , taking his time over the task and looking as cheerful at the end as he did at the beginning of the long day . Aleck had worked pretty hard , too , in the hot sun , and he was so drowsy that night that he was glad enough to see his uncle , wearied out with the writing , which seemed as if it would never come to an end , begin to nod and doze , and suddenly rise up and say : `` Let 's go to bed ! '' Aleck hardly knew how he got undressed , but he did afterwards recall going to the fully-open window and looking out at the dull night , as he drank in the soft cool air , which seemed so welcome after a still , sultry day . Then he was asleep , dreaming of nothing , till about midnight , when his brain became active and he fancied that he was back in the darkness by the unlaunched boat at Rockabie , growing wildly excited as he listened to the shouting and scuffling up one of the narrow lanes , followed by firing and what seemed to be either an order or a cry for help . The next moment the sleeper was wide awake , listening to what was undoubtedly a shout , and it was followed by another , both far away , but sounding clear on the night air , while from time to time came a dull murmur as of several voices together . `` They 're landing a cargo , '' thought Aleck , and with his mind full of luggers lying off the coast , with boats going to and fro to fetch kegs , chests and bales , he hurried on his clothes , dropped from his bedroom window , hurried down the garden to the cliff path , and began to climb up the zigzag . The landing-place would no doubt be away to the west and below Eilygugg , where the smugglers ' fishing-boats lay , and as soon as he was up out of the depression on to the level down , Aleck went off at a trot to get right at the edge of the cliff , where , unseen , he calculated upon getting a good view of what was going on by the light of , as he expected , many lanthorns .