about midnight
May-Day was at hand , and we had been working all night at the office of the _ Tocsin _ in order to have the paper ready in time to distribute to the provincial groups . Since Friday morning I had hardly left the office at all -- merely going home for dinner and returning at once to the fray -- and by four o'clock Sunday morning we had rolled off the last of the five thousand copies of the _ Tocsin _ , which , along with two thousand leaflets drawn up by myself and Armitage , were ready for distribution . The 1st of May fell on the following Wednesday , and we had for once the satisfaction of knowing that we had taken Time by the forelock . Short had retired to his shake-down in the dormitory about midnight , and the loud creaking of his boots against the boards was the only sign he gave of life . Kosinski , Armitage , and Giannoli , after making up and addressing the last parcel , had left for their respective abodes ; Beppe and Meneghino , having turned the wheel the whole evening , had fallen to sleep exhausted , stretched on a bench in the machine-room ; and I , after having partaken of a cup of tea and some hot buttered toast which old M'Dermott had provided for me , sat nodding and dozing on one side of the fire . The old cobbler had fallen fast asleep on the other side while poring over a dictionary , noting down sonorous and impressive-sounding words with which to embellish the oration he intended to deliver on May-day in Hyde Park . About half-past five , just as the first cold rays of the chilly spring dawn cast a ghastly blue light on the dormant figures around me , deadening the yellow flame of the lamp which was burning itself out , I was roused from my torpor by a light rap at the outside door .