nine
o'clock
Beyond the shadow of any doubt , at this present moment , a hundred thousand farmers are knotting their brows over its spread pages ere they tap out their final pipe and go to bed . And yet , so far was I beyond my tables , that all I needed was a mere look at a man to know his predispositions , his co-ordinations , and the index fraction of his motion-wastage . And here I must close this first chapter of my narrative . It is nine o'clock , and in Murderers ' Row that means lights out . Even now , I hear the soft tread of the gum-shoed guard as he comes to censure me for my coal-oil lamp still burning . As if the mere living could censure the doomed to die ! I am Darrell Standing .