about four in the morning
I could see by the look on Dick 's face as he acquiesced that he considered poor Tom to be mad ; and indeed I was myself completely mystified by his conduct . I had , however , seen so many proofs of my friend 's good sense and quickness of apprehension that I thought it quite possible that Wharton 's story had had a meaning in his eyes which I was too obtuse to take in . All night Tom Donahue was greatly excited , and when Wharton left he begged him to remember his promise , and also elicited from him a description of the exact spot at which he had seen the apparition , as well as the hour at which it appeared . After his departure , which must have been about four in the morning , I turned into my bunk and watched Tom sitting by the fire splicing two sticks together , until I fell asleep . I suppose I must have slept about two hours ; but when I awoke Tom was still sitting working away in almost the same position . He had fixed the one stick across the top of the other so as to form a rough T , and was now busy in fitting a smaller stick into the angle between them , by manipulating which , the cross one could be either cocked up or depressed to any extent . He had cut notches , too , in the perpendicular stick , so that , by the aid of the small prop , the cross one could be kept in any position for an indefinite time .