twenty
minutes to eleven
`` Oh , there 's no use arguin ' with you guys , '' roared No. 9 , disgustedly . Later on they returned to the court room to have certain parts of Mr. Yollop 's testimony read to them . After this a ballot was taken , and the only man for acquittal was the clock-maker . At twenty minutes to eleven he succumbed , not to argument or persuasion or reason but to a chill February draft that blew in through the open window above his head . He could n't get away from it . The others would n't let him . They got him up in a corner and he could n't break through .