eleven o'clock
Indeed Mr Philp , big with his news and important , had somehow contrived to overawe everyone on deck . `` The news is , '' he announced slowly , `` that the _ Saltypool _ has gone down , within fifty miles of Philadelphia . Crew saved in the boats . Cable reached Mr Rogers at eleven o'clock , and '' -- he paused impressively , `` there and then Rogers had a second stroke . Point o ' death , they say . '' Above the sympathetic murmur of Mr Philp 's audience there broke , on the instant , a gasping cry -- followed by a yet more terrible sound , as of one in the last agony of strangulation . All turned , as Palmerston -- dashing forward between the music-stands of the band and scattering them to right and left -- flung himself between Cai and ` Bias at their very feet .