four o'clock Sunday morning
Sometimes a phrenologist who had strayed into our midst would follow on with a brief phrenological séance , and nothing afforded the comrades more satisfaction than to be informed that their bumps showed undoubted criminal propensities . Then again the heavy roll of the machine would drown all lesser noises with its monotonous grinding , as the most resolute and earnest among us returned undaunted to the fray , whilst others , less energetic , curled up on the floor in varying uncomfortable attitudes about the office -- inside the dormitory shed and out , propped against posts and type-racks , or stretched on stacks of paper -- and slumbered in blissful ignorance of the future fortunes of the _ Tocsin _ . May-Day was at hand , and we had been working all night at the office of the _ Tocsin _ in order to have the paper ready in time to distribute to the provincial groups . Since Friday morning I had hardly left the office at all -- merely going home for dinner and returning at once to the fray -- and by four o'clock Sunday morning we had rolled off the last of the five thousand copies of the _ Tocsin _ , which , along with two thousand leaflets drawn up by myself and Armitage , were ready for distribution . The 1st of May fell on the following Wednesday , and we had for once the satisfaction of knowing that we had taken Time by the forelock . Short had retired to his shake-down in the dormitory about midnight , and the loud creaking of his boots against the boards was the only sign he gave of life . Kosinski , Armitage , and Giannoli , after making up and addressing the last parcel , had left for their respective abodes ; Beppe and Meneghino , having turned the wheel the whole evening , had fallen to sleep exhausted , stretched on a bench in the machine-room ; and I , after having partaken of a cup of tea and some hot buttered toast which old M'Dermott had provided for me , sat nodding and dozing on one side of the fire .