about five o'clock in the evening
His arms were crossed behind his head -- before him lay the river . Suddenly he sat upright , all eagerness and attention . Not a leaf stirred . It was about five o'clock in the evening , the stillest hour of the twenty-four . In such a silence the least sound would travel almost any distance , and there was a sound travelling over the water to him . It was nothing but a thud repeated with singular regularity ; but to his practised ears it conveyed much . He knew that a boat was approaching , as yet hidden by some distant curve in the river .