about seven o'clock
I bent eagerly over it , and lo , the image and superscription of Caesar stared me in the face ! `` So I was Manysnifters after all , and this fact was further impressed upon me an hour or so later by an enterprising office-seeker , to whom , in my enfeebled state , I fell an easy prey -- I endorsed his application for the Nova Zembla consulship . '' Colonel Manysnifters 's story was very thirst-provoking , and President Madison , our grinning drink-mixer , had a busy half-hour of it . It was now about seven o'clock and we were again overtaken by the storm , which hurled itself upon us , fairly rocking the car in its violence . The train , which had been proceeding slowly and jerkily , now came to a full stop . An avalanche of snow , earth , and loose stones had fallen at the end of a deep cut . Had we been going at any speed an awful catastrophe would have resulted .