eight o'clock in the evening
So there he was , imprisoned in the thickness of the walls , with no very definite intention beyond that of escaping from the clutches of the police . More hours passed . Gradually , tortured with hunger and thirst , he fell into a heavy sleep , disturbed by painful nightmares which he would have given much to be able to throw off . But he slept too deeply to recover consciousness until eight o'clock in the evening . When he woke up , feeling very tired , he saw his position in an unexpectedly hideous light and , at the same time , so accurately that , yielding to a sudden change of opinion marked by no little fear , he resolved to leave his hiding-place and give himself up . Anything was better than the torture which he was enduring and the dangers to which longer waiting exposed him . But , on turning round to reach the entrance to his hole , he perceived first that the stone did not swing over when merely pushed , and , next , after several attempts , that he could not manage to find the mechanism which no doubt worked the stone .