two o'clock in the morning
While we were conjecturing , the stroke of a large clock , brought whizzing in the wind , struck full upon our ear . We listened , with the most anxious ardour . The next stroke was very , very faint : a different current had carried it a different way : and , with all our eager attention , we could not be certain that we heard any more . Yet , though we had lost much time and our progress had been excessively tedious , it could not be two o'clock in the morning . It might indeed very probably be twelve . The first stroke of the clock made us conjecture it came from some steeple , or hall tower , at no very great distance . The second carried our imaginations we knew not whither .