four o'clock
before
He knew why old Donald could not sleep , and where he had gone , and he pictured him sitting before the little old cabin in the starlit valley communing with the spirit of Jane . And during those two hours he steeled himself for the last time to the thing that was going to happen when the day came . It was nearly three o'clock when MacDonald returned . It was four o'clock before he roused Joanne ; and it was five o'clock when they had eaten their breakfast , and MacDonald prepared to leave for the mountain with his telescope . Aldous had observed Joanne talking to him for several minutes alone , and he had also observed that her eyes were very bright , and that there was an unusual eagerness in her manner of listening to what the old man was saying . The significance of this did not occur to him when she urged him to accompany MacDonald . `` Two pairs of eyes are better than one , John , '' she said , `` and I can not possibly be in danger here .