one
o'clock a.m.
At midnight we were called again , Tom reporting that neither sight nor sound had occurred during his watch to disturb him . We now began to feel really refreshed , and during the next hour some of the men in my watch actually found superfluous energy enough to hum under their breath a snatch or two of a forecastle song as they paced vigilantly to and fro over the short stretch of ground which constituted their `` beat . '' As the silent hour flitted away without disquieting sight or sound of any kind I began to feel sanguine that we were going to be blessed with uninterrupted peace for the remainder of the night , and inwardly resolved that if matters still continued satisfactory after my watch had had its next hour 's sleep I would extend the period of sleep to two hours for the next watch , which , with what they had already had , ought to put them in excellent trim for the fatigues of the succeeding day , whatever they might be . And with this resolve still uppermost in my mind I laid down and once more dropped to sleep when my turn came at one o'clock a.m. Two o'clock arrived , our watch was called , and still there had been no sign of the enemy . I thought we might now safely reckon upon being allowed to pass the remainder of the night undisturbed ; I accordingly informed the retiring watch that unless we happened to be attacked in the interim they would now be allowed to sleep for a spell of two hours instead of one , and they forthwith composed themselves for a good long nap . But it was not to be . An hour later one of the men startled us all into instant wakefulness by sharply giving the challenge , which was instantly repeated all round the battery , and peering anxiously into the fog I detected the indistinct presence of several shapeless objects lying prone upon the ground where I knew that nothing of the kind ought to be .