nine
o'clock
Whether it belonged to us or to Vandy was another matter , but Reason suggested that Law and Equity alike would favour the party in whose land it was found . We ordered breakfast early and the car at a quarter to nine , but , for all that , it was past midnight before we went to bed . The next morning , for once in a way , we were up to time . Two minutes after the quarter we were all six in the car , and it was not yet nine o'clock when Jonah pulled up in the shade of a mighty oak less than a hundred paces from the tall iron gates which stood gaunt , rusty and forbidding , to mar the beauty of the quiet by-road . So far as we could see there was no one about , but we were anxious not to attract attention , so Berry and I alighted and strolled casually forward . The object of our visit was , of course , to learn from the board in whose hands the property had been placed for sale . But we had decided that , if it were possible , we must effect an entrance , to see whether the turf about the sundial had been disturbed .