four o'clock
On divers occasions , now , I have come unexpectedly upon him and found him muttering to himself with grim set face , or clenching and unclenching his big square fists and grinding his teeth . His conversation continually runs upon the feasibility of our making a night attack for ` ard , and he is perpetually questioning Tom Spink and Louis on their ideas of where the various men may be sleeping -- the point of which always is : _ Where is the second mate likely to be sleeping _ ? No later than yesterday afternoon did he give me most positive proof of his obsession . It was four o'clock , the beginning of the first dog-watch , and he had just relieved me . So careless have we grown , that we now stand in broad daylight at the exposed break of the poop . Nobody shoots at us , and , occasionally , over the top of the for ` ard-house , Shorty sticks up his head and grins or makes clownish faces at us . At such times Mr. Pike studies Shorty 's features through the telescope in an effort to find signs of starvation .