five minutes past three
I suppose I shall have to spend the whole blessed night , seeing they do what they know perfectly well they ought to do all along . I wonder if it 's Research makes 'em like that or Cousin Jane or what ? '' He dismissed this obscure problem , meditated for a space upon his watch , and decided there would be just time to drop into a restaurant and get some lunch before he hunted up the plaster of Paris and took it to Charing Cross . The train started at five minutes past three , and he arrived at Charing Cross at a quarter to three , to find Bensington in heated argument between two policemen and his van-driver outside , and Redwood in the luggage office involved in some technical obscurity about this ammunition . Everybody was pretending not to know anything or to have any authority , in the way dear to South-Eastern officials when they catch you in a hurry . `` Pity they ca n't shoot all these officials and get a new lot , '' remarked Cossar with a sigh . But the time was too limited for anything fundamental , and so he swept through these minor controversies , disinterred what may or may not have been the station-master from some obscure hiding-place , walked about the premises holding him and giving orders in his name , and was out of the station with everybody and everything aboard before that official was fully awake to the breaches in the most sacred routines and regulations that were being committed .