four o'clock
until eight
But his brain soon refused to bother itself with problems which time might solve in a manner not yet conceivable , and he slept soundly until he was roused at an early hour . Day dawned bright and clear . A pleasant northwesterly breeze swept the smoke haze from off the town and kissed the blue waters of the land-locked harbor into white-crested wavelets . He took the morning watch , from four o'clock until eight , and all he had to do was to make sure that the men tried to whiten decks already spotless , and cleaned brass which shone in the sun the instant that luminary peeped over the shoulder of Notre Dame de la Garde . Although the _ Aphrodite _ lay inside the mole , her bridge and promenade deck were high enough to permit him to see the rocky islet crowned by the Château d'If . He knew that the hero of Dumas ' masterpiece had burrowed a tunnel out of that grim prison , to swim ashore an outcast , a man with a price on his head , yet bearing with him the precious paper whose secret should make him the fabulously rich Count of Monte Christo . It was only a soul-stirring romance , a dim legend transformed into vivid life by the genius of the inspired quadroon .