twenty minutes past ten P.M.
Do you say to yourself , ` This prison may be our tomb ? ' Tomb , perhaps ; still I would not change it for Mahomet 's , which floats in space but never advances an inch ! '' While Michel Ardan was speaking , Barbicane and Nicholl were making their last preparations . Nicholl 's chronometer marked twenty minutes past ten P.M. when the three travelers were finally enclosed in their projectile . This chronometer was set within the tenth of a second by that of Murchison the engineer . Barbicane consulted it . `` My friends , '' said he , `` it is twenty minutes past ten .