about eleven
o'clock
Unfortunately , his friend proved to be not at home , so Sandy turned his footsteps toward the lower part of the town , where the streets were well lighted , and on pleasant evenings quite animated . On the way he met Josh Green , whom he had known for many years , though their paths did not often cross . In his loneliness Sandy accepted an invitation to go with Josh and have a drink , -- a single drink . When Sandy was going home about eleven o'clock , three sheets in the wind , such was the potent effect of the single drink and those which had followed it , he was scared almost into soberness by a remarkable apparition . As it seemed to Sandy , he saw himself hurrying along in front of himself toward the house . Possibly the muddled condition of Sandy 's intellect had so affected his judgment as to vitiate any conclusion he might draw , but Sandy was quite sober enough to perceive that the figure ahead of him wore his best clothes and looked exactly like him , but seemed to be in something more of a hurry , a discrepancy which Sandy at once corrected by quickening his own pace so as to maintain as nearly as possible an equal distance between himself and his double . The situation was certainly an incomprehensible one , and savored of the supernatural .