eight o'clock
It was filled with a drizzling rain . Hour after hour this drizzle kept up , thickening as the night came . He ate his supper by the light of a cell lamp . By eight o'clock it was black outside . In that blackness there was an occasional flash of lightning and rumble of thunder . On the roof of the barracks the rain beat steadily and monotonously . His watch was in his hand -- it was a quarter after nine o'clock , when he heard the door at the far exit of the hall open and close .