about eight o'clock
Remembering the game and the results of the game made him wince and bite his lip and grope for the bottle again . He sat breathing heavily for a moment after the stiff drink . Equating time to position had become second nature with him , but he had to think for a moment because his defective vision prevented him from seeing the Earth-crescent . Vega was almost straight above him in the late August sky , so he knew it was n't much after sundown -- probably about eight o'clock . He braced himself with another swallow of gin , picked himself up and got back to the road , feeling a little sobered after the nap . He limped on up the pavement and turned left at the narrow drive that led between barbed-wire fences toward the Hauptman farmhouse , five hundred yards or so from the farm road . The fields on his left belonged to Marie 's father , he knew .