midnight
`` I feel as fresh as a lark , and can scarcely realise that I have only been asleep two hours . '' `` Two hours ! '' retorted Marshall , with a laugh . `` Thou hast had six hours of good , honest sleep ; and 't is midnight instead of eight o'clock . The fact is , '' he continued in more serious tones , `` I could not sleep when I first attempted to do so . My thoughts were busy with the task that lay before me ; and I could not see how it was to be done in the time that I had allowed myself . The way that I looked at the matter was this : I had arranged that we were to start from here at eight o'clock .