about midnight
The presence of these people about the cabin might interfere with his plans , and so he had resolved to make a slow match do duty as a time-fuse . `` When I got the cartridge , '' said he to Phil Evans , `` I took some gunpowder as well . With the powder I will make a fuse that will take some time to burn , and which will lead into the fulminate . My idea is to light it about midnight , so that the explosion will take place about three or four o'clock in the morning . '' `` Well planned ! '' said Phil Evans . The colleagues , as we see , had arrived at such a stage as to look with the greatest nonchalance on the awful destruction in which they were about to perish .