seven o’clock
We carried him to his room and bade the leper go , giving him the bedstead , and the sheet on the bedstead to cover his nakedness , the gloves and the towels with which we had touched him , and the whip that had been hooked round his body . He put the sheet about him and went out into the early morning without speaking or mewing . Strickland wiped his face and sat down . A night-gong , far away in the city , made seven o'clock . ` Exactly four-and-twenty hours ! ' said Strickland . ` And I 've done enough to ensure my dismissal from the service , besides permanent quarters in a lunatic asylum .