six o'clock
My heart beats wildly at the very memory of that awful day . From this time forward , our reason , our judgment , our human ingenuity , have nothing to do with the course of events . We are about to become the plaything of the great phenomena of the earth ! At six o'clock we were all up and ready . The dreaded moment was arriving when we were about to seek an opening into the interior of the earth by means of gunpowder . What would be the consequences of breaking through the crust of the earth ? I begged that it might be my duty to set fire to the mine .