About seven o'clock
Percy Darrow sat quite calmly , though a little hungrily , through the first of the two hours of the Great Silence . As it fell , he looked at his watch ; then went on reading . Strangely terrified faces flitted by the open door of his little room . About seven o'clock Darrow , struck by a sudden idea , arose , walked down the corridor outside , and quite deliberately set to work to force the light door . As has been intimated , either by direct order of McCarthy or because of some vagueness of the orders , the young man had been confined , not in the jail proper , but in one of the living apartments of the wing . Few realize how important a role sound plays in what might be called the defensives of our every-day life . Sight is important , to be sure , but it is more often corroborative than not ; it is more often used to identify the source of the alarm that has been communicated through other channels .