eight o'clock
The lines were hauled in , and the hands set the tubs in the sun to try out the oil . Under the tropical heat the shark livers almost visibly melted away , and by four o'clock in the afternoon the tubs were full of a thick , yellow oil , the reek of which instantly recalled to Wilbur 's mind the rancid smell of the schooner on the day when he had first come aboard of her . The deck-tubs were emptied into the hogsheads and vats that stood in the waist of the `` Bertha , '' the tubs scoured , and the lines and bent shark-hooks overhauled . Charlie disappeared in the galley , supper was cooked , and eaten upon deck under the conflagration of the sunset ; the lights were set , the Chinamen foregathered in the fo ` c ` stle head , smoking opium , and by eight o'clock the routine of the day was at an end . So the time passed . In a short time Wilbur could not have said whether the day was Wednesday or Sunday . He soon tired of the unsportsmanlike work of killing the sluggish brutes , and turned shoreward to relieve the monotony of the succeeding days .