eleven o'clock
Subtle underlying forces began to stir in their portentous latency . The rapiers which thus far had merely touched , shivering lightly against each other , measuring each its opponent 's strength , feeling out his skill , fell apart , then re-engaged in sharp and deadly play . Steel met steel and , clashing , struck off sparks whose fugitive glimmerings lightened measurably the murk ... . On the sixth night out , at eleven o'clock as a matter of routine , the smoking room was closed for the night , terminating an uncommonly protracted and , in Lanyard 's esteem , irksome sitting at cards . Well tired , he went immediately to his quarters , undressed , stretched out in his berth , and switched off the light . Incontinently he found himself bedevilled by thoughts that would not rest . For upward of an hour he lay moveless , seeking oblivion in that very effort to preserve immobility , while the _ Assyrian _ , lunging heavily on her way , moaned and muttered tedious accompaniment to the chant of the working engines .