three in the morning
* * * * * The bewilderment that followed was like the confusion which exists between two states of consciousness when the mind passes from sleep to waking , or _ vice versa _ . O'Malley lost that power of attention which enables a man to concentrate on details sufficiently to recall their exact sequence afterwards with certainty . Two things , however , stood out and he tells them briefly enough : first , that the joy upon the father 's face rendered an offer of sympathy ludicrous ; secondly , that Dr. Stahl was again upon the scene with a promptness which proved him to have been close at hand all the time . It was between two and three in the morning , the rest of the passengers asleep still , but Captain Burgenfelder and the first officer appeared soon after and an orderly record of the affair was drawn up formally . The depositions of the father and of himself were duly taken down in writing , witnessed , and all the rest . The scene in the doctor 's cabin remains vividly in his mind : the huge Russian standing by the door -- for he refused a seat -- incongruously smiling in contrast to the general gravity , his mind obviously brought by an effort of concentration to each question ; the others seated round the desk some distance away , leaving him in a space by himself ; the scratching of the doctor 's pointed pen ; the still , young outline underneath the canvas all through the long pantomime , lying upon a couch at the back where the shadows gathered thickly . And then the gust of fresh wind that came in with a little song as they opened the door at the end , and saw the crimson dawn reflected in the dewy , shining boards of the deck .