About ten o'clock
`` Bert and Dick probably wo n't return much before that , so there 's no use writing a note telling them where I 've gone . '' With this thought he dismissed the matter from his mind , and hurried down to the waiting auto . He stepped in , the chauffeur slammed the door , and the big machine glided noiselessly away , at a rapid gait . About ten o'clock that evening Bert and Dick returned , and on their way to their room pounded on Tom 's door . They received no reply , so concluded that he must be asleep , and passed on . But when they stopped at his room the next morning , as was their invariable custom , and received no answer to repeated summons , they began to feel uneasy . `` Perhaps he 's stolen a march on us and gone down early , '' suggested Dick .