one o'clock
But the next second I saw that it was merely a projecting mass of moss and lichen in the wall of our stockade , and the eyes were a couple of wandering sparks from the dying ashes I had kicked . It was easy enough , too , to imagine I saw an animal moving here and there between the trees , as I picked my way stealthily to my tent . Of course , the shadows tricked me . And though it was after one o'clock , Maloney 's light was still burning , for I saw his tent shining white among the pines . It was , however , in the short space between consciousness and sleep -- that time when the body is low and the voices of the submerged region tell sometimes true -- that the idea which had been all this while maturing reached the point of an actual decision , and I suddenly realised that I had resolved to send word to Dr. Silence . For , with a sudden wonder that I had hitherto been so blind , the unwelcome conviction dawned upon me all at once that some dreadful thing was lurking about us on this island , and that the safety of at least one of us was threatened by something monstrous and unclean that was too horrible to contemplate . And , again remembering those last words of his as the train moved out of the platform , I understood that Dr. Silence would hold himself in readiness to come .