Two o'clock
Feehan hurried to his desk , instructed the telephone girls to connect all reporters working on the McCarthy case with his desk , then extracted a mass of papers from various pockets and commenced to study and compile his unending statistics . The reporters engaged in the search were under instructions to report at once any trace of the missing player and to report once an hour their whereabouts and progress . Every five or ten minutes one reported , and Feehan , laying aside his work , answered the call and suggested new lines of investigations . Two o'clock came . The office was growing quieter . Weary news gatherers slipped into their coats and departed quietly . Copy readers and editors completed their tasks and went away .