All day long he slept, flung at length upon the strong-smelling blankets--slept the dreamless sleep of exhaustion, crushed and overpowered with the work, flat and prone upon his belly, till again in the evening the cook sounded the alarm upon the crowbar bent into a triangle.
Every alternate week the shifts were changed.

The second week McTeague's shift worked in the daytime and slept at night.

Wednesday night of this second week the dentist woke suddenly.

He sat up in his bed in the bunk house, looking about him from side to side; an alarm clock hanging on the wall, over a lantern, marked half-past three.
"What was it ?" muttered the dentist.

"I wonder what it was." The rest of the shift were sleeping soundly, filling the room with the rasping sound of snoring.