ten o'clock
`` If so , the police are certain to spot them , '' laughed the waiter . `` They 're wanted for the theft of a princess 's jewels , they say . '' What should I do ? It was now long past ten o'clock , and I could not possibly arrive at Parkeston before early morning . Besides , if they had really gone there , they would , no doubt , be arrested . The man with the pimply face whose description so closely tallied with that of Reckitt , was surely too clever a criminal to run his neck into a noose by going to any port of embarkation . Therefore I concluded that whatever had been said at table had been said with the distinct object of misleading the waiter .