ten o'clock
Necessity had made him somewhat of an astronomer , and he had studied Chinese astrology as a pastime . He recognized these lamps of the empyrean as Mars and Venus , and , up-to-date American though he was , drew comfort from that favoring augury . Then , in stepping from the roadway to the sidewalk , he stumbled over a heavy curb , and laughed at the reminder that star-gazing did not reveal pitfalls before unwary feet . The incident knocked some of the poetry out of him , and it was a quite normal and level-headed young man who walked into the Central Hotel soon after ten o'clock , and found Detective Steingall 's gaze resting on him contemplatively from the neighborhood of the cigar counter . Before rejoining the waiting trio in the office , Steingall was interviewing the youth in charge of the tobacco and current literature department . Such story as the boy had to tell was hardly in favor of Curtis . `` The gentleman came here to buy some stamps , and he and a man who was reading in the café said something to each other in a foreign lingo , '' ran the recital .