eleven o'clock
Was it not far more to the point for them to learn , for example , that at 2 p.m. , on that very day , Rio de Janeiro would be partially destroyed by an earthquake ; that the Post Office in King 's Road , Chelsea , would be broken into by thieves ; that Nelson 's Monument in Trafalgar Square would be blown up by Suffragettes ; or something equally fresh and exciting ? One can not get thrills -- at least not the right kind of thrills in reading of what has already taken place . To say to ourselves , or to a friend , `` Just fancy , we might have been in that railway accident , '' or , in reading of a shipwreck `` What a mercy we did not embark after all , is it not ? '' is not half as enthralling as to be wondering if , at eleven o'clock that night , when the terrific storm in which twenty-six people will be killed by lightning in various parts of England , we shall be among the fatal number . One is not much moved to find oneself alive when a danger is passed , but one does get terribly excited in contemplating the risk we are bound to run of being killed . Within a week , the circulation of _ To-morrow _ had gone up from fifty thousand to ten million , and Hamar , inflated with success , said to himself , `` Now I will go and have another look at John Martin . '' When he arrived , Gladys was in the garden .