seven o'clock
And of course I was never to return at all . The whole thing seemed to me a super-subtle means to a far simpler end than the one we had achieved by stealth in the dead of the previous night . But it was Raffles all over and I ultimately acquiesced , on the understanding that we were to meet again in the Albany at seven o'clock , preparatory to dining somewhere in final celebration of the whole affair . But much was to happen before seven o'clock , and it began happening . I shook the dust of that derelict tower from my feet ; for one of them trod on something at the darkest point of the descent ; and the thing went tinkling down ahead on its own account , until it lay shimmering in the light on a lower landing , where I picked it up . Now I had not said much to Raffles about my hitherto inexplicable experience with the revolver , when I thought it had gone through the banisters , but found it afterwards in my hand . Raffles said it would not have gone through , that I must have been all but over the banisters myself when I grasped the butt as it protruded through them on the level of the floor .