About four in the morning
I conjectured that , thus protected , they had remained shut in , till either hunger , or the lack of oxygen in the used-up air , drove them forth , whereupon the poison , still active , must have instantly ended them . I found afterwards that this expedient of making air-tight had been widely resorted to ; and it might well have proved successful , if both the supply of inclosed air , and of food , had been anywhere commensurate with the durability of the poisonous state . Weary , weary as I grew , some morbid persistence sustained me , and I would not rest . About four in the morning I was at a station again , industriously bending , poor wretch , at the sooty task of getting another engine ready for travel . This time , when steam was up , I succeeded in uncoupling the carriages from the engine , and by the time morning broke , I was lightly gliding away over the country , whither I did not know , but making for London . * * * * * Now I went with more intelligence and caution , and got on very well , travelling seven days , never at night , except it was very clear , never at more than twenty or twenty-five miles , and crawling through tunnels . I do not know the maze into which the train took me , for very soon after leaving Canterbury it must have gone down some branch-line , and though the names were marked at stations , that hardly helped me , for of their situation relatively to London I was seldom sure .