4 p.m.
He was nervous lest in his excitement he should shoot the skipper . At any rate , he had a firing-party of twenty in the bows , and was determined to shoot someone , if he spotted a periscope . And , moreover , the whole thing made him tediously homesick , and he wanted his mother . He was mouching off quite sad and sulky about it all , when the ship 's clock pointed to 4 p.m. -LRB- and no one ever argues with a ship 's clock -RRB- , eight bells rang out , and all the junior officers were impressed into a lecture on Turkey -- even including Jimmy Doon , who thought that his important duties ought to have secured him exemption from such an ordeal . The lecturer was Major Hardy , who , being a man of the wanderlust , had planted in Assam , done some shady gun-running in Mexico , fought for one , or both , or all sides in the late Balkan War , and sauntered , with a hammock to hang under the trees , in all parts of Turkey , Anatolia , and the Ottoman world . He limped to the lecturer 's table , in the lounge , and , holding his monocle in his hand from the first word to the last , delivered a discourse of which this was the gist : Before Christmas we should be in Constantinople -- _ what _ . -LRB- Laughter , rather at the _ what _ than at the substance of the sentence . -RRB-