one o'clock
The time was short , and to lose no part of it he had resolved to remain awake the whole night through . There was little need to make a call on that resolution . With fear and remorse he could not close his eyes , and from hour to hour he heard every sound of the streets . At one o'clock , the voices singing outside were strained and cracked and out of tune ; at two , they were brutish and drunken and mingled with shrieks of quarrelling ; at three , there was silence ; at four , the butchers ' wagons were rattling on the stones from the shambles across the river to the meat markets of London , with the carcasses of the thousands of beasts that were slaughtered overnight to feed the body of the mammoth on the morrow ; and at five , the postal vans were galloping from the railway stations to the post-office with the millions of letters that were to feed its mind . At half-past five the Father had come out of his room and passed slowly upstairs , and John Storm was in the courtyard opening the lock of the outer gate . Although there was a feeling of morning in the freezing air it was still quite dark . `` Paul , '' he whispered , but there was no answer .