half past eight
`` Which shall be in about eighty-eight hours from now , '' replied the Captain . `` Which is as much as to say -- ? '' asked Ardan . `` That it is half past eight , '' replied M'Nicholl . `` My regular hour for breakfast , '' exclaimed Ardan , `` and I do n't see the shadow of a reason for changing it now . '' The proposition was most acceptable , especially to the Captain , who frequently boasted that , whether on land or water , on mountain summits or in the depths of mines , he had never missed a meal in all his life . In escaping from the Earth , our travellers felt that they had by no means escaped from the laws of humanity , and their stomachs now called on them lustily to fill the aching void .