nine o'clock
It was just here he made his first and only slip , since he did not stay to see the thing done . It chanced that the regular day operator was off on leave of absence , and his substitute , a young man from the train-despatcher 's office , was a person who considered the company wires an exclusive appanage of the train service department . At the moment of Hunnicott 's assault he was taking an order for Number 17 ; and observing that the lawyer 's cipher `` rush '' covered four closely written pages , he hung it upon the sending hook with a malediction on the legal department for burdening the wires with its mail correspondence , and so forgot it . It was nine o'clock when the night operator came on duty ; and being a careful man , he not only looked first to his sending hook , but was thoughtful enough to run over the accumulation of messages waiting to be transmitted , to the end that he might give precedence to the most important . And when he came to Hunnicott 's cipher with the thrice-underlined `` RUSH '' written across its face , and had marked the hour of its handing in , he had the good sense to hang up the entire wire business of the railroad until the thing was safely out of his office . It was half-past nine when the all-important cipher got itself written out in the headquarters office at the capital ; and for two anxious hours the receiving operator tried by all means in his power to find the general counsel -- tried and failed . For , to make the chain of mishaps complete in all its links , Kent and Loring were spending the evening at Miss Portia Van Brock 's , having been bidden to meet a man they were both willing to cultivate -- Oliver Marston , the lieutenant-governor .