six o'clock
This particular man -- or rather , this man , for he was anything but particular -- apparently took a great fancy to Charteris at first sight . He backed him gently against a wall , and insisted on telling him an interminable anecdote of his shady past , when , it seemed , he had been a ` super ' in some travelling company . The plot of the story , as far as Charteris could follow it , dealt with a theatrical tour in Dublin , where some person or persons unknown had , with malice prepense , scattered several pounds of snuff on the stage previous to a performance of _ Hamlet _ ; and , according to the ` character ' , when the ghost of Hamlet 's father sneezed steadily throughout his great scene , there was not a dry eye in the house . The ` character ' had concluded that anecdote , and was half-way through another , when Charteris , looking at his watch , found that it was almost six o'clock . He interrupted one of the ` character 's ' periods by diving past him and moving rapidly down the street . The historian did not seem to object . Charteris looked round and saw that he had button-holed a fresh victim .