ten o'clock
It lay off the main Woolwich Road , at the back of another block of factories , and to reach its dilapidated entrance gates involved an adventurous march through a number of miniature shell craters . Night , however , was merciful in that it hid the desolation which is called Stivvins ' from the fastidious eye of man . Mr. Sole , who was not aesthetic and by no means poetical , admitted that Stivvins ' gave him the hump . It was ten o'clock by the time they had reached the wharf , and half-past ten before their hammering on the gate aroused the attention of the night-watchman -- who was also the day-watchman -- who occupied what had been in former days the weigh-house , which he had converted into a weatherproof lodging . `` Hullo ! '' he said huskily . `` I was asleep . ''