three o'clock
Either Larry had had presence of mind to do a very clever thing , or someone had been at the body before the police found it . That was the more likely . A dead backwater of a place . At three o'clock -- loneliest of all hours -- Larry 's five minutes ' grim excursion to and fro might well have passed unseen ! Now , it all depended on the girl ; on whether Laurence had been seen coming to her or going away ; on whether , if the man 's relationship to her were discovered , she could be relied on to say nothing . There was not a soul in Borrow Street now ; hardly even a lighted window ; and he took one of those rather desperate decisions only possible to men daily accustomed to the instant taking of responsibility . He would go to her , and see for himself .