three o’clock in the
afternoon before
Then I went calmly on with my work , and in another half-hour had reached the window , which , fortunately for me , not only opened inward , but was off the latch . It was with a sense of inexpressible relief that I clambered through this window and for a brief moment breathed in the pungent odor of cedar . But it could have been only for a moment . It was three o'clock in the afternoon before I found myself again in the outer air . The only way I can account for the lapse of time is that the strain to which both body and nerve had been subjected was too much for even my hardy body and that I fell to the floor of the cedar closet and from a faint went into a sleep that lasted until two . I can easily account for the last hour because it took me that long to cut the thick paneling from the door of the closet . However , I am here now , sir , and in very much the same condition in which I left that house .