five past four
Minds in the village of Anfield worked with extraordinary rapidity . The first person of whom he asked the way to the Junction answered the riddle almost without thinking . He left his machine out in the road and went on to the platform . The first thing that caught his eye was the station clock with its hands pointing to five past four . And when he realized that , his uncle 's train having left a clear half hour before , his labours had all been for nothing , the full bitterness of life came home to him . He was turning away from the station when he stopped . Something else had caught his eye .