twenty-five minutes after
midnight
It was standard time both here and in Toronto ; so that would be the time at the _ Recorder _ office also -- 12.25 a.m. . They would be well into the rush of the night 's work by now . The boys would be in from assignments and pounding out `` copy '' in the city room . The wires would be warming up and the `` flimsy '' arriving at the telegraph editor 's desk in bunches , and old man Jeffreys would be reaching in the left bottom drawer of his scarred old desk for his little package of bread and cheese with an apple or a banana to top it off ; he always ate that twenty-five minutes after midnight , just before the linotype men and the rest of the composing-room staff , who ate at the all-night restaurant around the corner , straggled back to their work . Cristy began to go over the things she must do and to arrange them in the order she must do them . The very first thing would be the messages to McAllister and Brennan ; there must be no delay in getting the police into action . If they could surprise their quarry over at Waring 's house on the Island -- catch them in the middle of it -- it would provide a dramatic climax to the sensational story .