six o'clock
Most of them had gone out , with their families , into that precarious border-land of existence in which the to-morrows are ever dreaded . Yet here , somehow , was a different case . Langmaid found himself going back to the days when his mother had taken him to church , and he could not bear to look at , Hodder . Since six o'clock that afternoon -- had his companions but known it -- he had passed through one of the worst periods of his existence ... . After the regular business had been disposed of a brief interval was allowed , for the sake of decency , to ensue . That Eldon Parr would not lead the charge in person was a foregone conclusion . Whom , then , would he put forward ?