about ten o'clock
`` What on earth were you doing at that hour ? '' `` Not quite so many questions at once , friends , if you please . My brain is still a little waterlogged , and my thoughts work slowly . I only remember sitting down about ten o'clock to read a novel , and the first thing that roused me was the gun , which for the moment I took for the attack of the enemy of whom I was reading . I rushed out , half expecting to find the tavern surrounded , and to have to risk my life in its defence , and instead -- '' `` Instead , '' put in Winifred Anstice , very quietly , `` you risked your life to save some one else , -- Nora Costello , the Captain 's sister , spent the whole morning in tears , because Dr. Cricket would not let her leave her room to go and tell you how grateful she was . '' `` Hysterical , I suppose , '' said Flint . Winifred , who had opened her lips to say something more , shut them closely again , and sat back with the air of a person determined to have no further share in the conversation .