midnight
Kipling wrote the story . This man arranged a spur so that when unconsciousness came , his naked body pressed against the iron teeth . Well , I 've done the same . I look at the time , and I resolve that not until midnight , or not until one o'clock , or two o'clock , or three o'clock , shall the spur be removed . And so it rowels me awake until the appointed time . That spur has been my bed-mate for months . I have grown so desperate that five and a half hours of sleep is an extravagance .