four o'clock in the morning
Barnwell mingled with his fellow-servants in the hospital , and answered their questions regarding Batavsky . Concluding that it was best to humor the prevailing idea , he half-way admitted that the old man belonged to a noble family , and that he had been given a Christian burial at the instigation of the Czar himself . This , of course , produced food for comment and controversy for a long time , during which Barnwell , now able to speak the Russian language , was able to converse and to learn much . The short days of Siberia give one but a moment 's warning between daylight and total darkness , and although this is not known or felt away down in the gold-mines , where they work from four o'clock in the morning until ten o'clock at night -- where night and day are all the same to the poor victims -- those on the surface of the earth understand that when the sun goes down darkness follows , save when the Aurora Borealis comes with its weird light to illuminate the frozen world of Siberia . Kanoffskie waited with impatience . Somehow or other this young American had wormed himself into his cold and beastly nature , and even exercised more influence over him than he knew of . Darkness came on , and Barnwell went to his master , as ordered .