four o'clock
Then , under the hearth , there was a sound of scraping and grating , then a rushing noise , and then George saw -- two enormous rats ! Loud and long laughed my master to himself at the discovery . What cared _ he _ for rats ? He pulled his chair back to the table , and buried himself in his book for the next three hours , until his lamp began to burn low , and the letters on the pages grew blurred and dim , and the rats had scuffled back by the way they came , and my flagging hands pointed to four o'clock . Then George Reader , after kneeling in silent prayer , went to bed . ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Note 1 . At the college races at Cambridge the boats start one behind the other at fixed distances , and any boat overtaking and `` bumping '' the one in front of it moves up a place nearer to the `` Head of the River . ''