twelve o'clock
Fine thing to be an enthusiastic archæologist like that . That makes short work of a lonely evening for him if he 's so buried in his books or his maps -- Mapps , ha ! ha ! -- that he does n't seem to notice whether it 's twelve o'clock or one or two , maybe ! ' And all the time you 've been sitting snoozing and boozing in your chair , with your glass handy to wash the dust down . '' Puffin added his falsetto cackle to this merriment . `` And , often I 've thought to myself , '' he said , '' ` There 's my friend the Major in his study opposite , with all his diaries round him , making a note here , and copying an extract there , and conferring with the Viceroy one day , and reprimanding the Maharajah of Bom-be-boo another .