three in
the morning
So much the better , then : Lanyard need only make enquiry in the morning to identify his enemy . Deliberately closing his eyes , he dismissed the enigma . He possessed in marked degree that attribute of genius , ability to command slumber at will . Swiftly the troubled deeps of thought grew calm ; on their placid surface inconsequent visions were mirrored darkly , fugitive scenes from the store of subconscious memory : Crane 's lantern-jawed physiognomy , keen eyes semi-veiled by humorously drooping lids , the extreme corner of his mouth bulging round his everlasting cigar ... grimy lions in Trafalgar Square of a rainy afternoon ... the octagonal room of L'Abbaye Thêléme at three in the morning , a swirl of Bacchanalian shapes ... Wertheimer 's soldierly figure beside the telegraphers ' table in that noisome cave at the Front ... the deck of a tender in darkness swept by a shaft of yellow light which momentarily revealed a group of folk with upturned faces , a petticoat fluttering in its midst ... Day broke with rather more than half a gale blowing beneath a louring sky . Once clear of the bottleneck mouth of the harbour , the _ Assyrian _ ran into brutal quartering seas . An old hand at such work , for upward of a decade a steady-paced Dobbin of the transatlantic lanes , she buckled down to it doggedly and , remembering her duty by her passengers , rolled no more than she had to , buried her nose in the foaming green only when she must .