a quarter to nine
There were very few people upon Platform Number Twenty-one of Liverpool Street Station at a quarter to nine on the evening of April 2 -- possibly because the platform in question is one of the most remote and least used in the great terminus . The station-master , however , was there himself , with an inspector in attendance . A dark , thick-set man , wearing a long travelling ulster and a Homburg hat , and carrying in his hand a brown leather dressing-case , across which was painted in black letters the name MR. JOHN P. DUNSTER , was standing a few yards away , smoking a long cigar , and , to all appearance absorbed in studying the advertisements which decorated the grimy wall on the other side of the single track . A couple of porters were seated upon a barrow which contained one solitary portmanteau .