nine o'clock
Suddenly those anxious faces and glistening eyes turned like one , for an attempt , wild and unintelligible , but still an attempt , was about to be made to save that hand and its owner out of the very jaws of death . Now amongst the spectators was one whose life and reason were at stake on that attempt . Mrs. Dodd was hurrying homeward from this very neighbourhood when the fire broke out . Her son Edward was coming at nine o'clock to tea , and , better still , to sleep . He was leaving the fire brigade . It had disappointed him ; he found the fire-escape men saved the lives , the firemen only the property . He had gone into the business earnestly too ; he had invented a thing like a treble pouch hook , which could be fastened in a moment to the end of a rope , and thrown into the window , and would cling to the bare wall , if there was nothing better , and enable him to go up and bring life down .