midnight
`` Certainly ; it would indeed be very impertinent and inhuman in me to trouble you with any inquisitiveness of mine . '' `` And yet you rescued me from a strange and perilous situation ; you have benevolently restored me to life . '' Soon after this he inquired , if I thought that the breaking up of the ice had destroyed the other sledge ? I replied , that I could not answer with any degree of certainty ; for the ice had not broken until near midnight , and the traveller might have arrived at a place of safety before that time ; but of this I could not judge . From this time the stranger seemed very eager to be upon deck , to watch for the sledge which had before appeared ; but I have persuaded him to remain in the cabin , for he is far too weak to sustain the rawness of the atmosphere . But I have promised that some one should watch for him , and give him instant notice if any new object should appear in sight . Such is my journal of what relates to this strange occurrence up to the present day .