nine o'clock
Fortunately for her Barlow was still in ; for an acrimonious dispute , then in progress and taking much space in the public prints , between him and the District Attorney 's office was keeping him late at his desk despite the most autocratic and pleasant of all demands , those of his dinner hour . To him Maggie gave a false name , and told him that she had most important information to communicate at once ; to which he growled back that she could give it if she came down at once . Next she called up Barney , who had been waiting near a telephone in expectation of news of the result of her second visit to the home of Dick Sherwood . To Barney she said that she had the greatest possible news -- news which would require immediate action -- and that he should be at her suite at nine o'clock prepared to play his part at once in the big proposition that had just developed , and that he should get word to Old Jimmie to follow him in a few minutes . Within fifteen minutes a taxicab had whirled her down to Police Headquarters and she was in the office where three months earlier Larry had been grilled after his refusal of the license to steal and cheat on the condition that he become a police stool . Barlow , who was alone in the room , looked up with a scowl from a secret report he had secured of the activities of detectives in the District Attorney 's office . Although Maggie was pretty and stylishly dressed , Barlow did not rise nor did he remove the big cigar he had been viciously gnawing .