eleven o'clock
`` Ah , Lord ! '' he said . `` The old man is n't as young as he used to be , Evan , boy . There was a time once when eleven o'clock did n't seem any later to me than it does now to you ; but it 's gone by , son , and I do n't reckon it 'll ever come back again . '' Blount drew his chair nearer . `` I have a hard thing to say to you to-night , dad , '' he began , `` and you must n't make it harder by speaking of your -- of the things that get near to me . I am a man grown , and a Blount , like yourself ; I want you to give me back those papers which your dynamiter or somebody else in your pay took from my office safe three nights ago . ''