Twelve o'clock
But he was somewhat surprised to find that the captain had ordered his luggage into the porter 's care in the hall below before leaving , and that nothing remained in his room but a few toilet articles and the fateful portmanteau . The hours passed slowly . Owing to that perpetual twilight in which he had passed the day , there seemed no perceptible flight of time , and at eleven o'clock , the captain not arriving , he determined to wait in the latter 's room so as to be sure not to miss him . Twelve o'clock boomed from an adjacent invisible steeple , but still he came not . Overcome by the fatigue and excitement of the day , Randolph concluded to lie down in his clothes on the captain 's bed , not without a superstitious and uncomfortable recollection of that night , about a year before , when he had awaited him vainly at the San Francisco hotel . Even the fateful portmanteau was there to assist his gloomy fancy . Nevertheless , with the boom of one o'clock in his drowsy ears as his last coherent recollection , he sank into a dreamless sleep .