seven o'clock
`` But I hai n't seen your boiler sence before midnight . Eph was disturbin ' Mary Mite , and so I hung ` round her cabin pretty much the last half of the night . '' Jim went to his post at the boiler , and at an unaccustomed pace , from the point where he first saw and heard steam hissing upward from the safety valve . On quitting the night previous , he had banked the fire as usual , and this morning he should have found it burning so slowly that an hour of raking , replenishing , and open draughts would no more than start the machinery at seven o'clock . Going nearer he found that open dampers and a fresh supply of coal had set the furnace raging . What was that which protruded from the open door , and so nearly filled the aperture that the draught was not impaired ? A glance gave the answer .