eight minutes past twelve
The moon was at its zenith . How still the quiet night must have been was impressed upon him by the fact that he distinctly heard , and counted , the strokes of a church clock which must have been at least six miles away . He remembers looking at his watch and noting that there was a slight difference between his own and the church time . He made it eight minutes past twelve . With the dying away of the last vibrations of the distant bell the silence and the solitude of the place seemed to return and settle down upon it with increased insistence . While he was working it had not troubled him , but beside the black shadows thrown by those hoary stones it had the effect almost of a presence . It was with a sense of relief that he contemplated returning to his machine and starting up his engine .