six in the morning
From the cañón , from the crowding crests , from the whole immense landscape , there rose a steady and prolonged sound , coming from all sides at once . It was that incessant and muffled roar which disengages itself from all vast bodies , from oceans , from cities , from forests , from sleeping armies , and which is like the breathing of an infinitely great monster , alive , palpitating . McTeague returned to his work . At six in the morning his shift was taken off , and he went out of the mine and back to the bunk house . All day long he slept , flung at length upon the strong-smelling blankets -- slept the dreamless sleep of exhaustion , crushed and overpowered with the work , flat and prone upon his belly , till again in the evening the cook sounded the alarm upon the crowbar bent into a triangle . Every alternate week the shifts were changed . The second week McTeague 's shift worked in the daytime and slept at night .