eleven o'clock
Joe slipped away through the kitchen , sneakingly , and climbed the back fence . In the alley he lit a cheap cigarette , and thrusting his hands into his pockets and shivering violently -- for he had no overcoat , -- walked away singing to himself , `` A Spanish cavalier stood in his retreat , '' his teeth affording an appropriate though involuntary castanet accompaniment . His movements throughout the earlier part of that evening are of uncertain report . It is known that he made a partial payment of forty-five cents at a second-hand book-store for a number of volumes -- Grindstaff on Torts and some others -- which he had negotiated on the instalment system ; it is also believed that he won twenty-eight cents playing seven-up in the little room behind Louie Farbach 's bar ; but these things are of little import compared to the established fact that at eleven o'clock he was one of the ball guests at the Pike Mansion . He took no active part in the festivities , nor was he one of the dancers : his was , on the contrary , the role of a quiet observer . He lay stretched at full length upon the floor of the enclosed porch -LRB- one of the strips of canvas was later found to have been loosened -RRB- , wedged between the outer railing and a row of palms in green tubs . The position he occupied was somewhat too draughty to have been recommended by a physician , but he commanded , between the leaves of the screening palms , an excellent view of the room nearest the porch .