seven o’clock in the evening
exclaimed Raphael ; `` not so much as a hair 's - breadth . You may try , though , '' he added , half banteringly , half sadly . The chemist broke a razor in his desire to cut the skin ; he tried to break it by a powerful electric shock ; next he submitted it to the influence of a galvanic battery ; but all the thunderbolts his science wotted of fell harmless on the dreadful talisman . It was seven o'clock in the evening . Planchette , Japhet , and Raphael , unaware of the flight of time , were awaiting the outcome of a final experiment . The Magic Skin emerged triumphant from a formidable encounter in which it had been engaged with a considerable quantity of chloride of nitrogen . `` It is all over with me , '' Raphael wailed .