Eleven
o'clock
`` Yes , '' answered Joe sadly . And then he became reminiscent and asked whether Kenneth remembered the way they kicked the furniture around that first evening and how Kenneth had joshed Grafton Hyde . When they at last went to bed Kenneth found himself unable to sleep . Eleven o'clock struck on the town clock . From across the room came Joe 's regular breathing and Kenneth , punching his pillow into a new shape , envied him . For a half hour longer he tossed and turned , and then slumber came to him , yet so fitfully that he was wide awake and out of bed the instant that that first shrill cry of '' _ Fire ! _ '' sounded in the corridor .