six o'clock
Meantime Robinson lay in the dark cell with a morsel of bread and water , and no bed or chair , that hunger and unrest might co-operate with darkness and solitude to his hurt . To this horrid abode it is now our fate to follow a thief and a blasphemer . We must pass his gloomy portal , over which might have been inscribed what Dante has written over the gates of hell : `` ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE -- ABANDON HOPE !! '' At six o'clock Robinson was thrust in , and his pittance of bread and water with him ; the door , which fitted like mosaic , was closed . The steps retreated carrying away hope and human kind ; there was silence , and the man shivered in the thick black air that seemed a fluid , not an atmosphere . When the door closed his heart was yet beating with rage and wild desire of vengeance . He nursed this rage as long as he could , but the thick darkness soon cooled him and cowed him .