Twelve o’clock
`` Strange , '' thought the Doctor , `` it must come from some Northern fishing smack , '' and he went home . He sat reading in his study until midnight , and for the first time in thirty years he could not fix his mind on his book . For the vision of the sunset and the song of the Northern fisherman , which in some unaccountable way brought back to him the days of his youth , kept on surging up in his mind . Twelve o'clock struck . He rose to go to bed , and as he did so he heard a loud knock at the door . `` Come in , '' said the Doctor , but his voice faltered -LRB- `` the Cyprus wine again ! '' he thought -RRB- , and his heart beat loudly .