about two o'clock
`` Yes , and four of his ribs to boot ; '' added a fifth , who was determined the story should not want particulars . `` The doctor says he wo n't live till morning , '' said a sixth , who had not yet hove in sight , speaking below the top , as Hamlet senior 's ghost does under the stage . By this time , the whole of the alarming intelligence was fairly expended , the remaining eight , who made up the sum total of the quarter watch , having no farther particulars of consequence to communicate , the first six who came up having already broken every bone in poor Old Cuff 's body , and `` abridged his doleful days '' to boot . By dint of cross questioning , we made shift to ascertain , that about two o'clock , or four bells , Old Cuff had rolled away from under my head , and over the top brim . Fortunately he fell across the fore-topmast studding-sail tack , which broke two of his ribs and his fall , and thence he had gently canted over , and alighted upon the quarter-deck hammock-nettings , nearly knocked overboard the half-asleep main-topman who was perched up there as a look-out . He recovered , however , in two or three weeks , in spite of the doctor 's prognostication . Upon our arrival at Valparaiso , a similar accident happened to him , that , taken in connexion with the first , formed what newspaper folks call `` a singular coincidence . ''