six o'clock
They did not come . His spirits took wing again as the close of the day drew down upon him . He had waited , with all the stoicism of the born gambler , for the crash and it had not come ; he had taken the chance ; to use his own expression , he `` stood pat . '' At six o'clock he threw away his half-smoked cigar and sauntered forth from the hotel . The Colonel was very punctilious in that respect : he made it a point not to smoke in the street . Although he was now quite comfortably sure that there was no immediate danger of arrest , he still was confronted by the ugly certainty that Tom Braddock was hard upon his heels and that no amount of persuasion could have turned him from his purpose . His blood went cold from time to time when he permitted himself to recall the set , implacable expression in the man 's face , and the tigerish strength that marked every repressed movement of his body .