midnight
The Man of Science Rob passed the remainder of the day wandering about London and amusing himself by watching the peculiar ways of the people . When it became so dark that there was no danger of his being observed , he rose through the air to the narrow slit in the church tower and lay upon the floor of the little room , with the bells hanging all around him , to pass the night . He was just falling asleep when a tremendous din and clatter nearly deafened him , and set the whole tower trembling . It was the midnight chime . Rob clutched his ears tightly , and when the vibrations had died away descended by the ladder to a lower platform . But even here the next hourly chime made his ears ring , and he kept descending from platform to platform until the last half of a restless night was passed in the little room at the bottom of the tower . When , at daylight , the boy sat up and rubbed his eyes , he said , wearily : `` Churches are all right as churches ; but as hotels they are rank failures .