about four o'clock
Now he was his quiet old self again , and he took my hand , nodded , and said : `` Two o'clock , Cob . Good-night ! '' I saw him go along the great workshop , enter the office and close the door , and then I started on my rounds . It was anything but a cheerful task , that keeping watch over the works during the night , and I liked the first watch from ten to two less than the second watch from two to six , for in the latter you had the day breaking about four o'clock , and then it was light until six . For , however much one might tell oneself that there was no danger -- no likelihood of anything happening , the darkness in places , the faint glow from partly extinct fires , and the curious shadows cast on the whitewashed walls were all disposed to be startling ; and , well as I knew the place , I often found myself shrinking as I came suddenly upon some piece of machinery that assumed in the darkness the aspect of some horrible monster about to seize me as I went my rounds . Upon the other hand , there was a pleasant feeling of importance in going about that great dark place of a night , with a lantern at my belt , a stout stick in my hand , and a bull-dog at my heels , and this sensation helped to make the work more bearable . On this particular night I had paced silently all about the place several times , thinking a good deal about my little encounter with Uncle Jack , and about the last letters I had had from my father .