four
o'clock
I stood for quite two minutes listening intently for any further sounds out of the darkness , but none came to me , nor could I detect any light or other evidence of another craft in our neighbourhood . At length , fully confirmed in my conviction that my imagination had been playing a trick with me , I returned to the chair in which I had been sitting , and there finished out the watch , merely leaving my seat to strike six , and finally eight , bells . But I placed my chair in such a position that while still sitting in it I could keep my eye on the clock , and as the hands crept round its face , marking first three and then four o'clock , I strained my listening powers to their utmost in the hope that those elusive bell-strokes might again come stealing across the sea to me , but without result . When four o'clock came round , after striking eight bells with perhaps a little more vigour than usual , I called Marcel , resigned the deck to him , and went below . Yet , although I had felt drowsy enough on deck , and although Tourville 's ravings had ceased and he seemed to have fallen asleep , when I flung off my clothes and stretched myself on top of the bedding in my bunk , expecting to instantly drop off to sleep , I found , to my annoyance , that I had never been less inclined to slumber than I was just then . The fact was that in spite of myself those ghostly tinklings were still worrying me . Were they , or were they not , imaginary ?