12:30
He praised the gallantry of his subordinates . The letter , read in the Mikado 's palace a week later , when the submarine had been raised with its dead , was in the stoic style of the race and severely official . It culminated in a broken sentence . `` It is now 12:30 P. M. My breathing is so difficult and painful -- I thought I could blow out gasoline but I am intoxicated with it -- Captain Nakano -- it is now 12:40 P. M. -- I -- '' There it ended . It seemed to me that if I could busy myself in faint duplicate , with so human a record of approaching the ferry , I could be in a measure consoled . Then gazing at the Southern Cross , before sleep brought respite , I found myself thinking once more of the elusive lady who had so often escaped my inquisitive glance and whose face I should now never see . Though I am not giving authorship to this narrative with a view to its general perusal , I am determined so to write it that if other eyes do chance upon it they may read the true records of a man 's emotions under those circumstances .