five o'clock
The graceful spire towered hundreds of feet into the moonlit sky , and as he watched it the clock struck ten , slowly and solemnly , as if it were aware of the important part it was playing in the passage of time . At the same moment I was alighting from my train at Southampton Docks , whither I had gone in search of him . Small wonder was it , since he was in Salisbury , that I could not find him . Next morning , shortly before five o'clock , he rose and continued his journey , catching a London train at Westbury , reaching Bath at eight o'clock , and Bristol thirty-five minutes later . Before leaving the station he secured the luggage he had sent on ahead , and then once more departed in quest of an hotel . This accomplished , he was at liberty to go in search of a vessel . From the collection of advertisements in the coffee-room , it would appear that there was no place on the face of the habitable globe that could not be reached from that port .