noon
The quest seemed hopeless . `` There may be nothing in it after all , '' he murmured . `` But that does not lighten my load here ; '' and he pressed his hand over his heart . All that day he kept up his hunt , scarcely stopping to get a little lunch at noon . Toward nightfall he called at an address on Seventh Street next to the last on his list . It was an odd looking house -- apparently a store , for there was a regular shop window , but there was nothing in it but curtains that screened off the interior , and no sign , and the door when he tried it , was locked . But there was a bell handle close beside it , and this he pulled .