five minutes past eight
When they had gathered way , he shut off the gas escape and carefully readjusted the aeroplanes until the machine as a whole moved horizontally . There was felt a slight jerk as they reached the end of the rope , and then they began to move in a circle from east to west . Phoebe glanced at the clock . `` Just five minutes past eight , '' she said . The sun was pouring its beams into the right-hand windows when they started , but the shafts of light now began to sweep circularly across the floor , and in a few moments , as they faced the sun , it ceased to shine in from the right . Immediately afterward it shone in at the left-hand windows and circled slowly around until again they were in shadow with the sun behind them . Droop took out his watch and timed their revolutions by the sun 's progress from window to window . ''