three o'clock
But the fever would not let Channing taste of the food when they placed it at his elbow , and even as he pushed it away , his mind was still fixed upon the paragraph before him . He wrote , sprawling across the desk , covering page upon page with giant hieroglyphics , lighting cigarette after cigarette at the end of the last one , but with his thoughts far away , and , as he performed the act , staring uncomprehendingly at the captain 's colored calendar pinned on the wall before him . For many months later the Battle of Santiago was associated in his mind with a calendar for the month of July , illuminated by a colored picture of six white kittens in a basket . At three o'clock Channing ceased writing and stood up , shivering and shaking with a violent chill . He cursed himself for this weakness , and called aloud for the captain . `` I ca n't stop now , '' he cried . He seized the rough fist of the captain as a child clings to the hand of his nurse .