nine o'clock
Their landlady was a respectable poor woman , and had a son who was a constable . This son was given to talking , and , coming in to supper one night , he told his mother that on the following evening an attack was to be made on a gang of coiners in the Old Street Road . The mother , dreaming all sorts of horrors during the night , came the next day to Mrs. Skinner , in the parlour , and , under a pledge of profound secrecy , told her of the dreadful expedition in which her son was engaged . John Rex was out at a pigeon match with Lord Bellasis , and when he returned , at nine o'clock , Sarah told him what she had heard . Now , 4 , Bank-place , Old Street Road , was the residence of a man named Green , who had for some time carried on the lucrative but dangerous trade of `` counterfeiting '' . This man was one of the most daring of that army of ruffians whose treasure chest and master of the mint was Blicks , and his liberty was valuable . John Rex , eating his dinner more nervously than usual , ruminated on the intelligence , and thought it would be but wise to warn Green of his danger .