four o'clock
`` You see me , then , at the stage when I had got admission to the dock , but had learnt nothing of the vessel . It is true that I was admitted only to the outer basin , where the coasting steamers lay , and that the man ` Roaring John ' threatened me with all the curses he could command if I passed the gate which opened into the dock beyond ; but such threats to a man whose business it was to lay bare mystery had no more effect on me than the braying of an ass in a field of clover . Minute by minute and hour by hour , I waited my opportunity . It came to me on the morning of the eighth day , when , in the poor hope of getting something by the loss of sleep , I reached the yard at four o'clock ; and the gate being unopen , I lurked in hiding until the first man should come . He was no other than the one who had engaged me ; and when he had gone in , about five minutes after I had come , he did not close the second door after him , there being no men then at their work . I need not tell you that I used my eyes well in those minutes , and while he was away -- this was no more than a quarter of an hour -- I had seen all I wished to see . There , sure enough , lay the most remarkable warship I had ever beheld -- a great , well-armed cruiser , whose decks were bright with quick-firing guns , whose lines showed novelty in every inch of them .