eleven o'clock
`` Do n't go far away . '' Bronson and the boy walked to an oyster-saloon that made one of the line of houses facing the gates of the prison on the opposite side of the street , and seated themselves at one of the tables from which Bronson could see out towards the northern entrance of the jail . He told Gallegher to eat something , so that the saloon-keeper would make them welcome and allow them to remain , and Gallegher climbed up on a high chair , and heard the man shout back his order to the kitchen with a faint smile of anticipation . It was eleven o'clock , but it was even then necessary to begin to watch , as there was a tradition in the office that prisoners with influence were sometimes released before their sentence was quite fulfilled , and Bronson eyed the `` released prisoners ' gate '' from across the top of his paper . The electric lights before the prison showed every stone in its wall , and turned the icy pavements into black mirrors of light . On a church steeple a block away a round clock-face told the minutes , and Bronson wondered , if they dragged so slowly to him , how tardily they must follow one another to the men in the prison , who could not see the clock 's face . The office-boy finished his supper , and went out to explore the neighborhood , and came back later to say that it was growing colder , and that he had found the driver in a saloon , but that he was , to all appearances , still sober .