eight o'clock
The question is , at what hour did we pass out from it ? '' `` The air was very bad at daybreak , '' said I. `` Later than that , '' said Mrs. Challenger . `` As late as eight o'clock I distinctly felt the same choking at my throat which came at the outset . '' `` Then we shall say that it passed just after eight o'clock . For seventeen hours the world has been soaked in the poisonous ether . For that length of time the Great Gardener has sterilized the human mold which had grown over the surface of His fruit . Is it possible that the work is incompletely done -- that others may have survived besides ourselves ? ''