twelve o’clock
There are statements , explanations , pledges and recriminations in great abundance ; but facts are not to be discovered , for the sufficient reason that they are not there . What happened or seemed to happen was described as a plot , a mare 's nest , an aristocratic conspiracy , an assertion of principle , a mutiny , a declaration of loyalty , and a newspaper scare , according to the taste of the person who was speaking . The safest thing to call it , I think , is an incident . I went down to the club at twelve o'clock , intending to smoke a cigar and look at the picture papers before luncheon . I found Malcolmson in the outer hall . His head was bent over the machine which reels off strips of paper with the latest news printed on them . The machine was ticking vigorously , and I knew by the tense attitude in which Malcolmson was standing that something very important must have happened .