about 3 A.M.
The journals crackled like , popcorn every time he moved ; but he moved very little and it would have been a loud noise indeed that could have kept him awake . At a very early hour , then , the Volunteers and the rest of the Dozen were as snug as bugs in rugs . And then , -- oh , merciless fate ! -- at the coldest and dismalest hour of the whole twenty-four , when the night is about over and the day is not begun , at about 3 A.M. , what , oh , what ! should sound , even above the howls of the wind and the rattlings of the windows and doors , but that fiend of a fire-bell ! It clanged and banged and clamored and boomed and pounded its way even through the harveyized armor-plate of the Lakerim ship of sleep . Tug was the first to wake , and his heart almost stopped with horror of the time the old bell had chosen for making itself heard .