eight o'clock
I watched the sun rise over the river , and gradually climb up into a sky of pale blue and lemon that gave promise of another radiantly fine day . There was scarcely a breath of wind stirring , and everything was so deliciously quiet and peaceful that it almost seemed as if the events of the last three years were merely the memory of some particularly vivid nightmare . `` Almost , '' I say , for as a matter of fact I was never for a moment under any such pleasant delusion . If I had been , I should have had an early awakening , for at eight o'clock , just as I was thinking of routing out something in the nature of breakfast , I saw a little black dot advancing along the Tilbury road , which soon resolved itself into the figure of my faithful Charles . He struck off across the marsh and came up to the hut , where I was standing at the door waiting for him . `` Two telegrams and a letter for you , sir , '' he said , producing them from his bag . `` They came this morning , sir . ''