six in the
morning
It was after half-past five then , but how much later only the Lords of Time knew -- Time which bordered so closely on Eternity . He felt that he had no use whatever for Eternity but that he must not waste Time . Just now , that was far more precious . * * * * * From somewhere in the Cosmic Consciousness there came to him a thought , namely , that the first train to London started at half-past six in the morning . It was a slow train , but it got there , and in any case it went away from Tilling . He did not trouble to consider how that thought came to him : the important point was that it had come . Coupled with that was the knowledge that it was now an undiscoverable number of minutes after half-past five .